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HISTORY OF

HENRIE THE

FOYRTH;

With the battellat Shrewsturie, hetweene the I^ing and Lord

Henry Percy, furnamed

Heroic Hotfpux of

the North.

With the humorous conceits of Sir Iohn Falftalffe.

AT LONDON,

Printed by P. S. for Andrew Wife, dwelling

in Paules Churchyards the figne of

theAogelL 1}$8.

Facsimile of Title-Page, First Quarto

THENEWHUDSON SHAKESPEARE

KING HENRY THE FOURTH

PART I

INTRODUCTION/^ NOTES BY"

HENRYNORMAN HUDSON, LLD^

EDITED AND REVISED BY EBENEZER CHARITON BLACK LLD- (GLASGOW)

ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL

COPYRIGHT, 1880, BY HENRY N. HUDSON

COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY KATE W. HUDSON

COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY GINN AND COMPANY

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

429.7

gCfie gUicnenm jgrtttg

GINN AND COMPANY • PRO- PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A.

PREFACE

The text of this edition of King Henry the Fourth, Part I, is based on a collation of the earlier Quartos and the seventeenth century Folios, the Globe edition, the Cambridge (W. A. Wright) edition of 1891, and that of Delius (1882). As compared with the text of the earlier editions of Hudson's Shakespeare, it is conservative. Ex- clusive of changes in spelling, punctuation, and stage di- rections, very few emendations by eighteenth century and nineteenth century editors have been adopted ; and these, with the more important variations from the First Folio, are indicated in the textual notes. These notes are printed immediately below the text, so that a reader or student may see at a glance the evidence in the case of a disputed reading, and have some definite understanding of the rea- sons for those differences in the text of Shakespeare which frequently surprise and very often annoy. Such an ar- rangement should be of special help in the case of a play so widely read and not infrequently acted, as actors and interpreters seldom agree in adhering to one text. A con- sideration of the more poetical, or the more dramatically effective, of two variant readings will often lead to rich results in awakening a spirit of discriminating interpreta- tion and in developing true creative criticism. In no sense is this a textual variorum edition. The variants given are only those of importance and high authority.

vi THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

The spelling and the punctuation of the text are mod- ern, except in the case of verb terminations in -ed, which, when the e is silent, are printed with the apostrophe in its place. This is the general usage in the First Folio. The important contractions in the First Folio which may in- dicate Elizabethan pronunciation (T th" for 'in the,' 'wond'red' for 'wonder'd,' for example) are also followed. Modern spelling has to a certain extent been adopted in the text variants, but the original spelling has been re- tained wherever its peculiarities have been the basis for important textual criticism and emendation.

With the exception of the position of the textual vari- ants, the plan of this edition is similar to that of the old Hudson Shakespeare. It is impossible to specify the vari- ous instances of revision and rearrangement in the matter of the Introduction and the interpretative notes, but the endeavor has been to retain all that gave the old edition its unique place and to add the results of what seems vital and permanent in later inquiry and research. In this edi- tion, as in the volumes of the series already published, the chapters entitled Sources, Date of Composition, Early Editions, Versification and Diction, Duration of Action, Dramatic Construction and Development with Analysis by Act and Scene, and Stage History are wholly new. In this edition, too, is introduced a chronological chart cover- ing the important events of Shakespeare's life as man and as author, and indicating in parallel columns his relation to contemporary writers and events. As a guide to read- ing clubs and literary societies, there has been appended to the Introduction a table of the distribution of charac- ters in the play, giving the acts and scenes in which each

PREFACE Vli

character appears and the number of lines spoken by each. The index of words and phrases has been so ar- ranged as to serve both as a glossary and as a guide to the more important grammatical differences between Elizabethan and modern English.

While it is important that the principle of suum cuique be attended to so far as is possible in matters of research and scholarship, it is becoming more and more difficult to give every man his own in Shakespearian annotation. The amount of material accumulated is so great that the identity:origin of much important comment and sugges- tion is either wholly lost or so crushed out of shape as to be beyond recognition. Instructive significance perhaps attaches to this in editing the works of one who quietly made so much of materials gathered by others. But the list of authorities given on page lv will indicate the chief source of much that has gone to enrich the value of this edition. Especial acknowledgment is here made of the obligations to Dr. William Aldis Wright and Dr. Hor- ace Howard Furness, whose work in the collation of Quartos, Folios, and the more important English and American editions of Shakespeare has been of so great value to all subsequent editors and investigators.

With regard to the general plan of this revision of Hud- son's Shakespeare, Professor W. P. Trent, of Columbia University, has offered valuable suggestions and given important advice.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Page

I. Sources xi

The Political Action xii

Holinshed's Chronicles xii

Hall's Chronicle xiv

Stow's Annals xiv

Daniel's Civil Wars xv

The Comic Scenes xvi

The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth . xvi

The Name ' Falstaff ' xvii

II. Date of Composition xxiii

External Evidence xxiii

Internal Evidence xxiv

III. Early Editions xxv

Quartos xxv

Folios xxvi

Rowe's Editions xxvii

IV. Versification and Diction xxviii

Blank Verse xxviii

Alexandrines xxx

Rhyme xxx

Prose xxxi

V. Dramatic Construction and Development . . xxxii

Analysis by Act and Scene xxxiii

VI. Duration of Action xxxvii

P. A. Daniel's Time Analysis xxxviii

ix

X THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

Pagf

VII. Historical Connections xxxix

Genealogical Table xl

VIII. The Characters xlii

The King xlii

Hotspur xliii

Glendower xliv

The Prince xliv

Falstaff xlvi

IX. Stage History xlix

The Seventeenth Century 1

The Eighteenth Century lii

The Nineteenth Century lii

Authorities (with Abbreviations) lv

Chronological Chart lvi

Distribution of Characters lx

THE TEXT

Act I 3

Act II 36

Act III 79

Act IV in

Act V 130

Index of Words and Phrases 155

FACSIMILE Title-Page, First Quarto Frontispiece

INTRODUCTION

Note. In citations from Shakespeare's plays and nondramatic poems the numbering has reference to the Globe edition, except in the case of this play, where the reference is to this edition.

I. SOURCES

The ultimate source of all Shakespeare's plays which are based directly on English history, is that fervor of na- tional enthusiasm which characterized the closing decade of the sixteenth century in England. It is significant that the serious Elizabethan drama began in patriotism and had a distinct political motive. The perils and difficulties of a nation rent asunder by bitterly opposing factions confronted Queen Elizabeth at the beginning of her reign, and when Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton, both of them soon to be recognized as shrewd political leaders, wrote Gorboduc, the first regular English tragedy, their main object was to warn the English people of the danger in a kingdom divided against itself and to show the maiden queen the perils involved in uncertainty as to legitimate succession to a throne. The story material of Gorboduc was taken from British legendary history, and blank verse, destined to be the great national measure, was here used for the first time in an original English play. With the steady growth of national spirit devel- oped the taste for chronicle plays dealing with the his- tory of the nation in its formative period. The national

xi

xii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

drama grew up with the increasing pride of nation. In the defeat of the Armada this national consciousness reached full tide, and when Shakespeare began to write for the stage, the chronicle play dealing with stirring mo- ments in the story of Britain was the dominant type of serious drama. Alert and sensitive to contemporary in- fluences, as a popular writer for the theatre must be, Shakespeare wrote ten history plays, which, beginning in imitation and collaboration, show steadily increasing power and originality till they culminate in a supreme trilogy — two plays on the reign of Henry the Fourth and one on that of Henry the Fifth, the hero king who won the battle of Agincourt.

The Political Action

i. Holinshed's Chronicles.1 As in his other plays deal- ing with English history, Shakespeare derived the great body of his material for King Henry the Fourth from the Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, of Raphael Holinshed (Holynshed, Hollynshed, Holling- shead, etc.), first published in two folio volumes in 1577. A second edition appeared in 1 586-1 587, "newlie aug- mented and continued." In this second edition are many significant changes in the text, and the fact that Shake- speare adopts these2 strengthens the conclusion that this

1In W. G. Boswell-Stone's Shakspere's Holinshed are given all the portions of the Chronicles which are of special interest to the student of Shakespeare.

2 For example, 'pick-thanks,' used by Shakespeare in III, ii, 25, is found only in the second edition of the Chronicles. Boswell-Stone gives many proofs of this kind from the various plays in which Shakespeare takes material directly from Holinshed.

INTRODUCTION xiii

was the edition used by him. It is interesting to find that many of Holinshed's inaccuracies are repeated in the play. Among these may be mentioned the confusing of Edward Mortimer, the second son of the first Earl of March, with his nephew, the Earl of March, who was legitimate heir to the throne (I, iii, 84, see note), and the naming of the Earl of Fife as son to the conquered Doug- las (I, i, 71-72, see note). Everywhere in King Henry the Fourth the source material is treated with much more freedom than in the case of the earlier history plays, such as King Richard the Second. Among the more striking deviations from the Chronicles are: (1) the change in / the ages of King Henry and Hotspur, who for the pur- pose of dramatic contrast is made exactly the same age as Prince Henry; (2) the shifting of the reconciliation between the king and the prince (III, ii) to a much earlier period than Holinshed allows; (3) the representation of the prince as the rescuer of his father and the victor over Hotspur (V, iv) ; (4) the absence of Glendower and his Welsh adherents from the battle of Shrewsbury; and (5) the introduction of Prince John of Lancaster, Lady Percy, and Lady Mortimer, who are not mentioned by Holinshed in the narrative of the first part of the Percy rebellion. Some of these changes were probably due to the influence of Daniel, who in the fourth book of his epic poem, The Civil Wars (see below), traverses the same historical ground and arranges his matter as a poet would. Shakespeare's deviations from Holinshed and from the bald facts of history are in the interests of dramatic economy, dramatic time, and artistic effectiveness. The essential facts are not altered. He deals with source

xiv THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

material as Scott did in his historical novels, and as Turner treated the features of a landscape in his pictures of places. Shakespeare selects and arranges details to get the spirit of a movement and the imaginative truth of a series of events.

2. Hall's Chronicle. For not a few of the minor inci- dents and details of his historical plays Shakespeare draws on what is usually called Hall's Chronicle, the original title of which is The Union of the Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and York, by Edward Hall (Halle), first published in 1542. In at least one passage in King Henry the Fourth, Part I (III, i, 149-150), is obvious in- debtedness to this source. While Holinshed reports " a vaine prophesie, as though King Henrie was the moldwarpe . . . and they three were the dragon, the lion, and the woolfe, which should diuide this realme betweene them," no mention is made of Merlin. In Hall's Chronicle is this passage: "a certayne writer writeth that this earle of Marche, the Lorde Percy and Owen Glendor wer vn- wysely made beleue by a Welsh Prophecier that king Henry was the Moldwarpe ... by the deuiacion and not deuinacion of that mawmet1 Merlyne." Merlin is also credited with the prophecy in The Legend of Glen- dour in The Mirrour for Magistrates, 1559.

3. Stow's Annals. Another of Shakespeare's source books in English history is Annates, or a General Chronicle of England from Brut until the present yeare of Christ, 1580, by John Stow (Stowe). Stow, one of the early editors of Chaucer, was a diligent historian and antiquary, and assisted in the continuation of Holinshed's Chron-

1Ct Il.iii, 91.

INTRODUCTION XV

ides. In the Annals he gives some details of the "recrea- tion " robberies in which Prince Henry indulged, and says : "accompanied with some of his yong Lords and gentle- men, he would wait in disguised aray for his owne re- ceiuers, and distresse them of their money ; and sometimes at such enterprises both he and his company were surely beaten: and when his receiuers made to him their com- plaints how they were robbed in their comming vnto him, hee would give them discharge of so much money as they had lost ; and, besides that, they should not depart from him without great rewards for their trouble and vexa- tion." So in II, iv, 540-541, Shakespeare makes Prince Henry say in regard to the booty taken from the travelers on Gadshill, "The money shall be paid back again with advantage."

4. Daniel's Civil Wars. Entered in The Stationers' Registers, October, 1594, and published in the following year, was an interesting historical poem in ottava rima by Samuel Daniel, entitled The First Four Bookes of the Civil Warres between the Howses 0} Lancaster and Yorke. In the fourth book the subject is the reign of Henry the Fourth, and here Shakespeare's more noteworthy devia- tions from Holinshed, mentioned above, are anticipated. In a remarkable passage, too, Daniel refers to "wrong- revenging Nemesis" dogging the king because he is an usurper — a significant suggestion of the brooding fears which Shakespeare attributes to him (III, ii, 4-7) as the result of what in King Henry the Fourth, Part II (IV, v, 185-186), he is made to describe as the "by-paths and indirect crook'd ways I met this crown."

xvi THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

The Comic Scenes

5. The Famous Victories 0} Henry the Fifth. Shake- speare's subplots and comic scenes are usually of his own invention, and nothing in humorous literature is more original in its general spirit and atmosphere than the glorious comedy associated with Falstaff and his fellows. The mere letter of this matter is developed from a crude anonymous chronicle play entered in The Stationers' Registers, 1594, under the title The famous victories of HENR YE the FFYFTH conteyninge the honorable battell of Agin-court. This play was acted as early as 1588 and printed in 1598 "as it was plaide by the Queenes Maies- ties Players." In the first half the old tavern in East- cheap is mentioned as the scene of the prince's revelries ; much is made of his association with such boon compan- ions as Sir John Oldcastle (familiarly known as 'Jockey' and the original name of Falstaff in Shakespeare's play), Ned (Poins's name is 'Edward'), Gadshill, and the Host- ess; here is a carrier journeying to London with a "great rase of ginger" (II, i, 22), and with no small gusto is represented the robbery of the king's receivers at Gads- hill, followed by the tavern quarrel which leads to the intervention of the sheriff. One passage, in which Dericke and John Cobler act out the arraignment of the prince before the chief justice, when the prince gives his lordship a box on the ear and is immediately committed to prison, may be quoted as showing a very probable suggestion for the bit of splendid comedy (II, iv, 370-472) where Falstaff and Prince Henry enact an imaginary meeting between the prince and his father :

INTRODUCTION xvn

Dericke. Faith John, lie tell thee what, thou shalt be my Lord Chiefe Justice, and thou shalt sit in the chaire, And ile be the yong Prince, and hit thee a box on the eare, And then thou shalt say, to teach you what prerogatives meane, I commit you to the Fleete.

John. Come on, Ile be your Judge, But thou shalt not hit me hard.

Dericke. No, no.

John. What hath he done?

Dericke. Marry he hath robd Dericke.

John. Why then I cannot let him goe.

Dericke. I must needs have my man.

John. You shall not have him.

Dericke. Shall I not have my man, say no and you dare. How say you, shall I not have my man ?

John. No marry shall you not.

Dericke. Shall I not John?

John. No Dericke.

Dericke. Why then take you that till more come, Sownes, shall I not have him?

John. Well I am content to take this at your hand, But I pray you who am I?

Dericke. Who art thou, Sownds, doost not know thy selfe?

John. No.

Dericke. Now away simple fellow, Why, man, thou art John the Cobler.

John. No, I am my Lord Chiefe Justice of England.

Dericke. Oh John, Masse thou saist true, thou art indeed.

John. Why then, to teach you what prerogatives mean, I com- mit you to the Fleete.

The Name 'Falstaff'

The original name of Falstaff in both parts of King Henry the Fourth was Oldcastle. This is established be- yond question by evidence internal (within the two plays) and external (contemporary references and allu-

XVin THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

sions). In Part I, I, ii, 40-41, Prince Henry calls Fal- staff "my old lad of the castle." In II, ii, 106, the metrically defective line, "Away, good Ned. Falstaff sweats to death," is made normal when 'Oldcastle' is substituted for 'Falstaff.' In Part II, III, ii, 25-26, Falstaff is said to have been "page to Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk," as the historical Oldcastle actually was; and in the Quarto version the abbreviation 'Old.' is actually left standing before one of Falstaff's speeches (I, i, 113-115). But the most important internal evidence is the explicit statement in the Epilogue of Part II, 27- 30: "for any thing I know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already a be kill'd with your hard opinions ; for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man."

Sir John Oldcastle, "the good Lord Cobham," was a famous Lollard who suffered martyrdom early in the fifteenth century. After his death his character was held up to ridicule and worse by his enemies, who circulated the story that he was a glutton, a profligate, and above all a corrupter of Prince Henry. This is the Oldcastle of The Famous Victories, and there is evidence that Henry Brooke, eighth Lord Cobham, son of Elizabeth's Lord Chamberlain, who claimed descent from Oldcastle, took steps to check the degradation of the memory of the dis- tinguished martyr.1 One interesting attempt to offset the vilification of Oldcastle on the public stage was made in a play in two parts, acted in 1599, and entered in The Stationers' Registers, August 11, 1600, under the title

1!'By a curious coincidence, Cooling Castle, the property of Old- castle's third wife, where he shut himself up for a time in 1413, is situate in the vicinity of Gadshill." — A. W. Ward.

INTRODUCTION xix

History of the Life of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, with his Martyrdom. Of two early editions of the first part of this counterblast one has Shakespeare's name impudently foisted on the title-page. This use of his name may have led to its inclusion among Shakespeare's writings in the Third Folio,1 and to its being recognized by Schlegel and Tieck as unquestionably by Shakespeare.2 The Prologue makes clear that it was intended as a reply to Shakespeare's treatment of the famous knight :

It is no pampered glutton we present, Nor aged Councellor to youthful sinne; But one whose vertue shone above the rest, A valiant martyr and a vertuous Peere.

Such agitation as these facts indicate unquestionably led Shakespeare to substitute the name of Falstaff for that of Oldcastle. According to Nicholas Rowe (1674- 17 18), Shakespeare's earliest biographer, who preserves many traditions, collected for him at Stratford and else-

1"Unto this impression," runs the title-page of the second issue of the Third Folio, 1664, "is added seven Playes never before printed in folio, viz.: Pericles, Prince of Tyre. The London Prodigal. The History of Thomas Ld. Cromwell. Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cob- ham. The Puritan Widow. A Yorkshire Tragedy. The Tragedy of Locrine." Pericles has of course its rightful place in the Shakespeare canon ; the other six are spurious pieces which had been attributed by unscrupulous publishers to Shakespeare in his lifetime. They may be called the Shakespeare Apocrypha.

2 The real authorship is made fairly clear by an entry in Hens- lowe's Diary, October 16, 1599: "payd for the first part of the Lyfe of Sir Jhon Ouldcastell, and in earnest of the Second Pte. for the use of the company, ten Pound." The money was received by "Thomas Downton to paye Mr. Monday, Mr. Drayton, Mr. Wilson and Hathaway."

XX THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

where by Thomas Betterton, the famous actor, the change was due to a court command: "This part of Falstaff is said to have been written originally under the name of Oldcastle ; some of that family being then remaining, the Queen was pleas'd to command him to alter it ; upon which he made use of Falstaff." The change had been made before the play was licensed for publication, Feb- ruary 25, 1 597-1 598, for the entry in The Stationers' Registers reads "with the conceipted mirthe of Sir John Falstaff." Illuminating evidence regarding the change of name and contemporary criticism thereon is found in the writings of Thomas Fuller (1 608-1 661) and others. In The Church History of Britain Fuller speaks with en- thusiasm of the change: "Stage-poets have themselves been very bold with, and others very merry at the memory of Sir John Oldcastle, whom they have fancied a boon companion, a jovial royster, and a coward to boot. The best is, Sir John Fastolfe hath relieved the memory of Sir John Oldcastle, and of late is substituted buffoon in his place." Later, in The History 0} the Worthies of England, Fuller condemns the use of the name of the historical Sir John Fastolf and comments sarcastically on the changed spelling : "To avouch him by many arguments valliant is to maintain that the sun is bright, though since, the stage has been overbold with his memory, mak- ing him a thrasonical puff and emblem of mock valour. True it is, Sir John Oldcastle did first bear the brunt, being made the makesport in plays for a coward. Now, as I am glad that Sir John Oldcastle is put out, so am I sorry that Sir John Fastolfe is put in to relieve his

INTRODUCTION xxi

memory in this base service, to be the anvil for every dull wit to strike upon. Nor is our comedian excusable by some alteration of his name, writing him Sir John Falstaff (and making him the property and pleasure of King Henry V. to abuse) seeing the vicinity of sounds in- trench on the memory of that worthy knight, and few do heed the inconsiderable difference in spelling."1 Fuller here refers to Sir John Fastolf of Caister (circa 1378- 1459), often referred to in The Paston Letters, who like Oldcastle was a Lollard and, strangely enough, the owner of a Boar's-Head Tavern in Southwark. He won dis- • tinction in the French wars and was named lieutenant of Harfleur under Henry the Fifth. After the defeat at Patay he was charged with cowardice and deprived of the Garter, but the charge was afterwards disproved and the Garter restored. In King Henry the Sixth, Part I, he is represented as a coward deserting the post of danger and rightfully deprived of his knight's honors and banished. Halliwell-Phillipps, in his essay On the Character of Fal- staff, quotes from an Oxford scholar, Dr. Richard James, who, about 1625, protested that Shakespeare, after of- fending Oldcastle's descendants by giving his 'buffoon' the name of that noble martyr, "was put to make an ignorant shift of abusing Sir John Fastolf, a man not inferior in vertue, though not so famous in piety." Simi- larly George Daniel, the seventeenth century poet, com- plains of the way in which Shakespeare had made use of Fastolf's honored name to escape the charge of having

1 In the earlier Quartos Falstaff' s name is usually spelled ' Fal- stalffe'; the later printings omit the '1' in the second syllable.

xxii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

slandered the great Lollard martyr. In an interesting study called The Two Sir John Fastolfs,1 L. W. Ver- non Harcourt brought together evidence for another his- torical original in Sir John Fastolf of Nacton, who in the reign of Henry the Fourth, shortly before the Scrope re- bellion of 1405, became involved with the father-in-law of Sir John Oldcastle in contempt of court and was com- mitted and bound over to keep the peace. Here may be historical foundation for the story of Prince Henry's in- tervention in behalf of one of his favorites. Evidence is abundant that the name of Oldcastle continued to be identified with Shakespeare's glorious but somewhat dis- reputable knight until well into the seventeenth century. In 1 618, two years after Shakespeare's death, was pub- lished Nathaniel Field's play, Amends for Ladies, in

which occurs:

Did you never see

The Play where the fat knight, hight Oldcastle,

Did tell you truly what this honour was?

Here is a transparent allusion to Falstaff's soliloquy in Part I, V, i, 127-140. Such a reference as this makes it probable, as Halliwell-Phillipps suggested, that in per- formances of King Henry the Fourth actors may have continued to use the name Oldcastle long after Shake- speare had altered it to that of Falstaff.

1 Published in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Lon- don, 1910.

INTRODUCTION xxni

II. DATE OF COMPOSITION

The date of composition of King Henry the Fourth, Part I, falls within 1598, the_later time limit {terminus ante quern), and 1596, the earlier time limit {terminus post quern). The weight of evidence is in favor of 1596—

1597-

External Evidence

1. The Stationers' Registers. Andrew Wyse (Wise), the publisher of King Richard the Second and King Richard the Third in 1597, obtained on February 25, 1 597-1 598, the following license for the publication of King Henry the Fourth. The transcription is from The Stationers' Registers.1

XXV to *it febntaru

Andrew Wyse Entred for his Copie vnder thandes of Master Dix : and master Warden man a booke intitlued The historye of Henry the IIIJ™ with his bat- taile of Shrewsburye against Henry Hottspurre of the Northe with the conceipted mirthe of Sir Iohn Ffalstoff vjd.2

The play thus entered was issued as a Quarto within the year. (See below, Early Editions.) The author's name is not given either in the entry or on the title-page of the Quarto.

2. Meres's Palladis Tamia. Francis Meres mentions King Henry the Fourth in the Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury, Being the Second Part 0} Wits Commonwealth,

1 Professor E. Arber's Transcripts of The Stationers Registers (1554-1640), 4 vols., 1875-1877.

2 Sixpence. This was the usual price of a Quarto.

xxiv THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

published in 1598. Meres's famous list of Shakespeare

plays in existence at that time is in the following passage :

As Plautus and Seneca are accounted the best for Comedy and Tragedy among the Latines, so Shakespeare among ye English is the most excellent in both kinds for the stage : for Comedy, witnes his Getleme of Verona, his Errors, his Love labors lost, his Love labours wonne, his Midsummers night dreame, & his Merchant of Venice : for Tragedy, his Richard the 2, Richard the 3, Henry the 4, King John, Titus Andronicus, and his Romeo and Iuliet.

Meres quotes in another part of his book, but without acknowledgment, Falstaff's dictum, "There is nothing but roguery to be found in villainous man" (II, iv, 123-124).

Internal Evidence

1. Allusions within the Play. Among the minor allu- sions within the play which investigators have made much of as pointing to the earlier time limit given above may be mentioned : (1) I, i, 1-7, where, according to Chalmers, is an obvious allusion to England's popular expedition against Spain in 1596; (2) II, i, 12-13, with a probable reference to a much-discussed Proclamation for the Dearth 0} Corn, issued in 1596; and (3) V, iv, 41, where the somewhat forced introduction of the epithet 'valiant' may be connected with the interest taken in Queen Elizabeth's honoring the Shirley family in 1597.

2. Style and Diction. The sinewy and forceful expres- sion in both verse and prose, the quality of the blank verse, the free use of prose, the proportion of prose to verse, the distinction in the character-drawing through- out, and the management of the scenes of broad humor strengthen the case for the date of composition suggested by the other evidence.

INTRODUCTION XXV

III. EARLY EDITIONS

Quartos

Few of Shakespeare's plays were printed so soon after their first production on the stage as King Henry the Fourth, Part I, seems to have been, and only King Richard the Third was printed as often during the poet's lifetime. Five quarto editions appeared within fifteen years — un- mistakable evidence of the popularity of the play.

i. The First Quarto. King Henry the Fourth, duly entered in The Stationers' Registers, was printed for the first time in 1598, in the volume which is now called the First Quarto, designated in the textual notes of this edi- tion as Qx. The First Quarto had the interesting descrip- tive title-page which is reproduced as the frontispiece of this volume. The text of the First Quarto seems to have been printed from authoritative copy, and is in every way most satisfactory.

2. The Second Quarto. In 1599 appeared the Second Quarto, Q2, a reprint of the First, with a few unimportant changes in the text, and the following title-page on which Shakespeare's name first appears in connection with the play : The | History of | Henrie the | Fovrth ; | With the battell at Shrewsburie | betweene the King and LordHenry I Percy, surnamed Henry Hot- | spur of the North. | With the humorous conceits of Sir | Iohn Falstalffe. | Newly corrected by W. Shakespeare. | At London, Printed by 5. S. for Andrew Wise, dwelling | in Paules Churchyard, at the signe of | the Angell, 1599. |

3. The Later Quartos. On June 25, 1603, Wyse made over his interest in King Henry the Fourth, Part I, to

xxvi THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

Matthew Law of St. Paul's Churchyard, who brought out three new editions in Shakespeare's lifetime, in 1604 (Q3), 1608 (Q4), 1613 (Q5), respectively, and one in 1622 (Q6), six years after the poet's death. Quarto editions of the play also appeared in 1632 (Q7) and in 1639 (Q8)- Each of these Quartos appears to have been printed from its predecessor ; some contain errors obviously due to hasty reprinting, and in all the title-page is substantially the same.

Folios

Perhaps the most important single volume in all English literature is what is now known as the First Folio, pub- lished in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death, in which all his collected plays (with the exception of Pericles, first printed with the other plays in the Third Folio) were first given to the world. In the First Folio, designated in this edition F1? the play with the title, The First Part of Henry the Fourth, with the Life and Death of Henry Sirnamed Hot-spurre, occupies pages 48-73 in the division of the book devoted to the 'Histories,' which are arranged in historical sequence from King John to King Henry the Eighth. Internal evidence proves that the text of the play in the First Folio was set up from a partially corrected copy of the Fifth Quarto (Q5, 16 13). "In many places the readings coincide with those of the earlier Quartos, which were probably consulted by the corrector." — Camb. As the textual notes of this edition show, the text of the First Folio omits practically all the oaths and asseverations in the play as given in the First Quarto (see note, I, ii, 38).

INTRODUCTION xxvn

The Second Folio, F2 (1632), corrects a few manifest misprints of the First Folio ; and this corrected text is re- peated with few changes, except in the way of slightly modernized spelling, in the Third Folio, F3 (1663, 1664), l and in the Fourth Folio, F4 (1685).

Rowe's Editions

The first critical editor of Shakespeare's plays was Nicholas Rowe, poet laureate from 1715 to his death in 1 7 18. His first edition was issued in 1709 in six octavo volumes ; a second edition, in eight volumes, was published in 1714.2 His text followed very closely that of the Fourth Folio, but with modernization of spelling, punctuation, and occasionally grammar.

Rowe, an experienced playwright, marked the entrances and exits of the characters in a thorough and systematic way and introduced many stage directions. He also gave complete lists of dramatis personae, which have been the basis for all later lists. Rowe was the first man to write a life of Shakespeare. This life, in which are preserved many valuable traditions, was published along with his edition of the plays, and entitles Rowe to the eternal gratitude of the world.3

1See above, The Name 'Falstaff,' page xix, with note.

- The Poems were not included in either edition, but were pub- lished in 1 715 from the edition of 1640.

3 Earlier efforts towards a biography of Shakespeare were made by Fuller in his Worthies (1662), and by Aubrey, the Oxford anti- quary, in Lives of Eminent Men, compiled between 1669 and 1696, and first printed in Letters from the Bodleian Library (1813).

xxviii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

IV. VERSIFICATION AND DICTION

Blank Verse

A little more than half (1622 lines of the total 3170) of King Henry the Fourth, Part I, is in blank verse1 — the unrhymed, iambic five-stress (decasyllabic) verse, or iambic pentameter, introduced into England from Italy by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, about 1540, and used by him in a translation of the second and fourth books of Vergil's JEneid. Nicholas Grimald (TotteVs Miscellany, 1557) employed the measure for the first time in English original poetry, and its roots began to strike deep into British soil and absorb substance. It is peculiarly signifi- cant that Sackville and Norton should have used it as the measure of Gorboduc, the first English tragedy (per- formed by "the Gentlemen of the Inner Temple" in 1561, and first printed in 1565). About the time when Shake- speare arrived in London the infinite possibilities of blank verse as a vehicle for dramatic poetry and passion were being shown by Kyd, and above all by Marlowe. Blank verse as used by Shakespeare is really an epitome of the development of the measure in connection with the Eng- lish drama. In his earlier plays the blank verse is often similar to that of Gorboduc. The tendency is to adhere to the syllable-counting principle, to make the line the unit, the sentence and phrase coinciding with the line

1The term ' blank verse' was just coming into use in Shakespeare's day. It seems to have been used for the first time in literature in Nash's Preface to Greene's Menaphon, where we find the expression, " the swelling bumbast of bragging blanke verse." Shakespeare uses the expression three times, always humorously or satirically (see Muck Ado About Nothing, V, ii, 32).

INTRODUCTION xxix

(end-stopped verse), and to use five perfect iambic feet to the line. In plays of the middle period, such as The Mer- chant oj Venice, King Henry the Fourth, and As You Like It, written between 1596 and 1600, the blank verse is more like that of Kyd and Marlowe, with less monotonous regularity in the structure and an increasing tendency to carry on the sense from one line to another without a syntactical or rhetorical pause at the end of the line (run- on verse, enjambement) . Redundant syllables as a rule abound, and the melody is richer and fuller. In Shake- speare's later plays the blank verse breaks away from bondage to formal line limits and sweeps all with it in freedom, power, and organic unity.

The verse of King Henry the Fourth, Part I, differs in one interesting respect from that of Shakespeare's other plays of the middle period in that the number of feminine (or double, redundant, hypermetrical) endings, as I, i, 22, 96; iii, 6, 23, 47, etc., is singularly small, the percentage of such endings being as low as 5.1, while in Part II it is 16.3 and rises to 20.5 in King Henry the Fifth. On this Professor Herford has based a theory that in King Henry the Fourth, Part I, Shakespeare was making experiments as to the rhythmical effects of the different forms of blank verse. It has also been suggested that this tendency to more formal and regular structure may have been in- tended to give to the verse something of an epic character. End-stopped, normally regular iambic pentameter lines, such as I, i, 1, 4, 6, etc., abound, but the metre is every- where more flexible and sinewy than in the severely end- stopped verses of the earliest plays. Short verses are used for interrupted and exclamatory remarks, as in I, i, 76;

XXX THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

IV, iv, 6, etc., and in such abrupt and broken conversation as that between Hotspur and Lady Percy in II, iii, 72-76.

Alexandrines

While French prosodists apply the term Alexandrine only to a twelve-syllable line with the pause after the sixth syllable, as in II, iii, 61, it is generally used in Eng- lish to designate iambic six-stress verse, or iambic hexam- eter, of which we have examples in IV, iii, 12 ; V, ii, 8, etc. The Alexandrine was a favorite Elizabethan measure, and it was common in moral plays and the earlier heroic drama. English literature has no finer examples of this verse than the last line of each stanza of The Faerie Queene. In King Henry the Fourth, Part I, are 13

Alexandrines.

Rhyme

In the history of the English drama, rhyme as a vehicle of expression precedes blank verse and prose. Miracle plays, moral plays, and interludes are all in rhyming measures. In Shakespeare may be seen the same develop- ment. A progress from more to less rhyme is a sure index to his growth as a dramatist and a master of expression. In the early Love's Labour's Lost are more than 500 rhyming five-stress iambic couplets ; in the very late The Winter's Tale there is not one.1 In King Henry the Fourth, Part I, rhyme is rare and found only in the five- stress iambic couplets, used so frequently in Elizabethan plays, to round off a speech or mark an exit. Of these rhyming couplets there are 42.

!The Chorus speech introducing Act IV is excepted as not part of the regular dialogue.

INTRODUCTION xxxi

Prose

In the development of the English drama the use of prose as a vehicle of expression entitled to equal rights with verse was due to Lyly. He was the first to use prose with power and distinction in original plays, and did memorable service in preparing the way for Shakespeare's achievement. Interesting attempts have been made to explain Shakespeare's distinctive use of verse and prose ; and of recent years there has been much discussion of the question "whether we are justified in supposing that Shakespeare was guided by any fixed principle in his em- ployment of verse and prose, or whether he merely em- ployed them, as fancy suggested, for the sake of variety and relief."1 It is a significant fact that in many of his earlier plays there is little or no prose, and that the pro- portion of prose to blank verse increases with the decrease of rhyme. In King Henry the Fourth, Part I, three kinds of prose may be distinguished : ( i ) The prose of formal documents, as in the letter which Hotspur reads and com- ments on at Warkworth Castle (II, iii, 1-34). In Shake- speare, prose is the usual medium for letters, proclamations, and other formal documents. (2) The prose of 'low life' and the speech of humorous characters, as in the tavern scenes and all in which Falstaff is the chief figure. This is a development of the humorous prose found, for ex- ample, in Greene's comedies that deal with country life.

1 Professor J. Churton Collins's Shakespeare as a Prose Writer. See Delius's Die Prosa in Shakespeares Dramen (Shakespeare Jahr- buch, V, 227-273); Janssen's Die Prosa in Shakespeares Dramen; Professor Hiram Corson's An Introduction to the Study of Shake- speare, pages 83-98.

xxxii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

(3) The colloquial prose of dialogue and of matter-of- fact narrative, as in IV, ii. "Shakespeare was the creator of colloquial prose, of the prose most appropriate for drama." — Churton Collins.

Here and there in King Henry the Fourth, Part I, may be read the principles which underlie Shakespeare's tran- sition from prose to verse and from verse to prose. In I, ii, the badinage between Prince Henry and Falstaff and the dialogue of information between the prince and Poins are naturally in prose, but when the prince is left alone his deepest feelings find expression in verse. Similarly, in II, iii, the transition from prose to verse takes place when Lady Percy enters.

V. DRAMATIC CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT

The supreme hero of Shakespeare's ten plays on English history is Henry of Monmouth. The three which deal with him constitute the great trilogy in the range of chronicle drama, and it is peculiarly significant that with the development of his dramatic interpretation of this hero Shakespeare should have interwoven that of Falstaff, the supreme figure in English comedy. Never before in Eng- lish drama had been such perfect fusion of the serious and the comic as in King Henry the Fourth, and the history and the comedy are organically connected through Prince Henry.

Drama, be the outcome tragedy or comedy, deals with a conflict between an individual force (which may be centered either in one character or in a group of characters acting as one) and environing circumstances. In tragedy the individual (one person or a group) is overwhelmed;

INTRODUCTION xxxm

in comedy the individual triumphs. In both tragedy and comedy five stages may be noted in the plot development : ( i ) the exposition, or introduction 5(2) the complication, rising action, or growth; (3) the climax, crisis, or turning point; (4) the resolution, falling action, or consequence; and (5) the denouement, catastrophe,1- or conclusion. Let it not be thought for a moment that each of these stages is clearly differentiated. As a rule they pass insensibly into each other, as they do in life.

Analysis by Act and Scene2 I. The Exposition^ or Introducxiqn (Tying of the Knot)

Act I, Scene i. The political setting of the play is given in the first speech of the king; he tells of the bloody strifes in both foreign and civil affairs that have filled the first year of his reign. Percy's valor in battle is reported, and from the king we hear of the brilliant reputation of this young man in contrast to the boisterous and seemingly worthless life of his own son, Prince Henry.

Act I, Scene ii. Prince Henry with Falstaff and other boon companions are introduced. The change in diction from the verse of the preceding scene to prose here is significant of the change of the stage-setting from the palace to the tavern. A robbery is planned, but Prince Henry does not consent to join in it till he is assured of the fu.il that is involved in the scheme that Poins has proposed.

Act I, Scene Hi, 1-124. The king openly reveals his suspicious attitude toward the men who helped him to the throne. Through

a" Catastrophe — the change or revolution which produces the conclusion or final event of a dramatic piece." — Johnson.

2 "It must be understood that a play can be analyzed into very different schemes of plot. It must not be thought that one of these schemes is right and the rest wrong; but the schemes will be better or worse in proportion as — while of course representing correctly the facts of the play — they bring out more or less of what ministers to our sense of design." — Moulton.

xxxiv THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

his imperiousness he arouses antagonism in Worcester and Hot- spur. This foreshadows the first step in the Falling Action of the drama.

II. The Complication, _Rising Action, or Growth (Tying of

the Knot)

Act I, Scene Hi, 124-302. Hotspur's personal honor has been of- fended by the king's refusal to ransom his wife's brother, whom he fears as the rightful heir to the throne. Honor in its varying degrees is a prominent theme throughout the play. Percy urges his father and uncle to "redeem Your banish'd honours and restore yourselves Into the good thoughts of the world again" (lines 180- 182). He would "pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon, Or dive into the bottom of the deep, . . . And pluck up drowned honour by the locks" (lines 202-205) provided that he "might wear Without corrival all her dignities" (lines 206-207).

Worcester proposes a scheme of uniting with the Scots and York against the king. Hotspur pronounces it a noble plot and consents to engage in it, but this willingness to join with the enemies of his country and to sacrifice patriotic loyalty to personal honor marks the beginning of the complication. The deceitful Worcester with whom he now makes alliance appears as an important factor in bringing about the dramatic Catastrophe.

Act II, Scene i. This scene with its realistic presentation of an Elizabethan inn yard prepares for the Gadshill robbery.

Act II, Scene ii. The highwaymen are at work. In accordance with their plan Prince Henry and Poins desert Falstaff and his three men when the travelers approach but return in disguise and take the booty from the thieves.

Act II, Scene Hi. Hotspur with characteristic disdain for out- ward display of tender feeling takes a cold farewell of Lady Kate and starts off to meet his allies in the cause against the king.

Act II, Scene iv. In this, which has been called the most mirth- ful scene in the whole sweep of dramatic literature, Falstaff reveals his resourcefulness. Here we see the prince in the height of his merrymaking among characters of all types, ranging fror nimble-witted giant of humor to the blank Francis, whose language is, "Anon, anon."

INTRODUCTION XXXV

III. The Climax, Crisis, or Turning Point (the Knot Tied)

Act III, Scene i. Hotspur, Mortimer, and Glendower have united and decide on the division of the country between them. The con- trast between the nature of Hotspur and that of Glendower is made clear. After taking leave of their wives, Mortimer and Hotspur start off to prepare for war.

IV. The Resolution, Falling Action, or Consequence (the Untying of the Knot)

Act III, Scene ii. So far Prince Henry has been shown in the gay life that gave occasion for his unenviable reputation. From now on is revealed his true self, ever great and honorable at the core even while he is indulging in the fun at Eastcheap.

In this important scene Shakespeare reminds us of the central forces that determined the character and artinn<; nf King Rirhard the-Second and of. King_Henry the Fourth and gives us the secret of Prince Henry's fitness to rule. Richard the Second was a senti- mentalist, who had no stability to his life. He mingled with the common people but for the indulgence of his own selfish feelings; he let his worthless flatterers interfere with his reign until they were indirectly the cause of his downfall. Bolingbroke was the opposite in his make-up — a man of action who could set a goal and reach it. Out of policy he kept aloof from the people ; but although shrewdness and diplomacy may make a politician, they never make a great leader of men. In a true ruler there is need of something vital and sincere. Shakespeare shows Prince Henry mingling with all classes of people, not for self-indulgence, but to satisfy his hunger Jor that which is genuine and real in life. He flees from the polished court where all is artificial and unreal to the Eastcheap tavern, where the vice is at least frank and genuine.. He is more concerned with life itself than with the trappings of it.

Act HI, Scene Hi. A vivid picture of the life at Eastcheap under its monarch, Falstaff. The money that had been stolen in a previ- ous prank is repaid by the prince. He cares nothing for the super- ficial taint to his royal name in having had a share in the robbery, for it was the price of "a good jest for ever" (II, ii, 94). The

xxxvi THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

scene closes with the breaking up of the party to make preparations for war. " Prince Henry passes to and fro between the history and the comedy, serving as the bond which unites the two." — Dowden.

Act IV, Scene i. Northumberland intimates that he is ill and can- not aid his son in the fight. From now on Hotspur's chances for success are constantly decreased. He receives news that the op- posing forces, thirty thousand strong, are approaching and again that Glendower cannot come for fourteen days. Glorying in the greater danger, Hotspur rouses his men to die merrily.

Act IV, Scene it. In humorous contrast to the true valor of the last scene is this picture of Falstaff with his band of scarecrows being urged on to Shrewsbury by Prince Henry and Westmoreland.

Act IV, Scene in. Hotspur is impatient for the battle, while Worcester and Vernon try to persuade him to wait until morning. The dispute is interrupted by the entrance of Blunt bearing a mes- sage from the king. Hotspur explains his cause but withholds his answer till morning.

Act IV, Scene iv. The dramatic Denouement or Catastrophe is foreshadowed in York's fears for Hotspur.

Act V, Scene i. Worcester and Vernon are sent by Percy to the king. Prince Henry magnanimously expresses his admiration for Hotspur and, to save blood on either side, challenges him to decide the matter in single fight. Here we have the fine distinction between his conception of honor and that which ruled Hotspur. Through- out the play Hotspur has sacrificed the country's good to personal honor. At the crisis Prince Henry shows that a larger spirit and a nobler principle rule his life — to save the blood of his countrymen he is willing to enter in single contest against this "king of honor." King Henry's policy intervenes and' terms of reconciliation are of- fered. At the close of the scene is revealed the secret of Falstaff 's attitude toward life.

Act V, Scene it. Worcester and Vernon bring back a false re- port of the terms offered to Hotspur by the king and so sacrifice the common good to their own selfish interests. This is significant in the justification of the laws of the drama. The nemesis is brought about by the application of the same principle that Hot- spur had used to attain his end. "As you mete it out, so shall it be meted out unto you." Too late does Hotspur wish that the

INTRODUCTION xxxvii

quarrel might rest on his head and Henry Monmouth's alone. Dauntless to the end he leads his men unto the field to the cry "Esperance, Percy" against his country.

Act V, Scene Hi. The battle is on. That the king is not made of the finest stuff is apparent from the fact that he sends likenesses of himself into the field. Hotspur and Douglas show their wonted valor, while Falstaff stands idly by in shelter, for to him honor is nothing but_air.

V. The Denouement. Catastrophe, or Conclusion (the Knot

Untied)

Act V, Scene iv. King Henry and Douglas fight. The king is in danger, Prince Henry enters and fights with Douglas, who in a moment flies. The king has evidence of his son's love. Hotspur and Prince Henry fight, and Hotspur is killed. Douglas and Fal- staff fight, and Falstaff pretends to be killed. This seeming coward- ice is relieved by the humor of the situation when Henry leaves him lying in the blood of Hotspur, and he dismisses his fear lest the "king of honor" might be pretending too, by stabbing the dead body. A final assurance of Prince Henry's magnanimous concep- tion of honor is shown when he suffers Falstaff to seem the slayer, of Hotspur. To him the deed was sufficient; he did not need the praise.

Act V, Scene v. Vernon and Worcester are put to death. Prince Henry secures the ransom of Douglas, whom he respects for his valor. The scene ends in a forward march to meet the other con- spiring foes of the king.

VI. DURATION OF ACTION

i. Historic Time. The period of time covered by this play dates from June 22, 1402, when Glendower defeated Mortimer, to the battle of Shrewsbury, July 21, 1403.

2. Dramatic Time. According to P. A. Daniel1 the dramatic time of King Henry the Fourth, Part I, is made

^Transactions of New Shakspere Society, pp. 477-479.

xxxviii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

up of ten 'historic' days, with three extra Falstafnan days, and intervals, the total dramatic time being three months at the outside. The following is Daniel's formal analysis :

Day i. Act I, Scene i. London. News of the battle of Holme- don, etc.

Interval: a week [?]. Hotspur comes to Court.

Day 2. Act I, Scene Hi. At Court. The Percys quarrel with the King. Their rebel- lion planned.

Interval: some three or four weeks.

Day 3. Act II, Scene Hi. Wark- worth. Hotspur determines to set out to join the confederates at Bangor.

Interval: a week. Hotspur and Worcester both arrive at Ban- gor.

Day 4. Act III, Scene i. Ban- gor. The confederates make the final arrangements for their outbreak.

Interval: about a fortnight.

Day 5. Act HI, Scene it. At Court. Prince Hal has an in- terview with his father. News

Act I, Scene ii. Lon- don. Falstaff, Prince Hal, and Poins. The ^Day 1a. robbery at Gadshill planned.

Act II, Scene i. Inn yard at Rochester.

Act II, Scene ii. Gads- hill. The robbery.

-Day 2a.

Act II, Scene iv. The Boar's-Head, East- cheap. Prince Hal,^ Falstaff , etc., at night and early morning.

= Act III, Scene ii. At Court.

-Day 3a.

INTRODUCTION xxxix

of the insurgents is received. This Day 5 is also a continua- tion of Day 3a, which com- mences in Act II, Scene iv.

Day 6. Act III, Scene Hi. East- cheap. Prince Hal informs Falstaff of his appointment to a charge of foot for the wars. The morrow of Day 5.

Interval: a week.

Day 7. Act IV, Scene i. Rebel camp near Shrewsbury.

Interval: a few days.

Day 8. Act IV, Scene ii. Near Coventry. Falstaff with his ragged regiment.

Day 9. Act IV, Scene Hi. The rebel camp. Blunt comes with offers of peace from the king. Act IV, Scene iv. York. The Archbishop prepares for the good or ill fortune of the morrow.

Day 10. Act V, Scenes i-v. The battle of Shrewsbury.

VII. HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS

The following table, pages xl and xli, gives the more im- portant historical characters of King Henry the Fourth and shows in what other plays of Shakespeare they, their ancestors, or their descendants are either mentioned or appear as dramatis personae. A study of this table will show the significant way in which the ten historical plays, dealing with the formative period of England's political development, are interrelated.

xl

THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

HISTORICAL

Edward III

'327-1377

H5

Edward William

.1 Lionel

Philippa ~ (3) Catharine Swynford =

the Black d. 1335

Duke of Clar-

Roet (?)

Prince

ence d. 1369

Geoffrey

Duke of

1

Aquitair.e d. 137S

—

Chaucer (?)

Thomas Ralph Joan

(1) Elizabeth

1

Beaufort Neville = Beaufort

H5

de Burgh

Thomas

Earl of Earl of

1

Chaucer

Dorset West-

Joan of

Philippa

=

Duke of moke-

Kent (I) the

=

Matilda

Exeter land

Fair Maid

Edmund

Burghersh

d. 1425 °- M25

|

Mortimer

Michael

H5 H412 Hs

RICHARD II

Earl of

de la Pole

i377-'399

March

Earl of

R2

1

Suffolk

Anne Morti-

d. 1415

(1) Anne of

mer

H5

Bohemia

(See descend-

1

(2) Isabella

ants of Ed-

(3) William

of France

mund Langley

de la Pole

= Alice

= (2) Thomas Montague

R2

Duke of York)

Earl of Suffolk exc. 1450

Earl of Salisbury d. 1428 H5

H6l

Signs and Abbreviations in the Tables

d.= exc.=

k.= k.A.=

R2 =

R-3 = H4* =

H42 = H6' = H62 = H63=

KJ =

direct descent from

married to

brother or sister

brother or sister of

died

executed

killed

killed at Agincourt

one of the dramatis

do.

do.

do.

do.

do.

do.

do.

do.

the half blood

persona; :n Richard IT Richardlir

1 Henry I V

2 Henry IV

1 Henry VI

2 Henry VI J Henry VI Henry V King John

Italics indicate that the person is only mentioned in the play. Numerals in parentheses before a name indicate a first, second, or third marriage. Nu- merals after a king's reign indicate the dates of his reigu.

Charles de la Bret

Constable of France

k.A. 1415

H5

1-

(2) Owen Tudor =

Edmund Tudor

Henrv Tudor Earl of Richmond HENRY VII TUDOR

1485-1509 H63R3

INTRODUCTION

xli

CONNECTIONS

= Philippa of Hainault I d. 1369

John of

Gaunt

Duke of

Lancaster

d. 1399

R2

Edmund Langley = (2) Joan of Kent (II) Duchess of York R2

Duke of York

d. 1402

R2

Thomas

Duke of Gloucester

d. 1397

(2) Constance of ~ (1) Isabella of Castile Castile, d. 1393

(0 Blanche of |

Lancaster Chaucer's ' Duchesse ' ? d. 1369

(3) Henry, 3 Baron

Scrope of Masham

Lord Scroop

exc. 1415

H5

Henry

Bolingbroke

Earl of Derby

Duke of Hereford

Duke of Lancaster

HENRY IV

LANCASTER

1399-1413

R2 H412

(2) Joan of Navarre

d. 1437 (1) Mary de Bohun

d. 1394

Edward

Earl of

Rutland

Duke of

Aumerle

Duke of York

k.A. 1415 R2 H5

Richard

Earl of

Cambridge

exc. 1415

HS

Anne Mortimer

Richard

Plantagenet

Duke of

York

d. 1460

H6,23

Constance

Thomas

Despenser

d. 1400

Isabella

Richard

Beauchamp

Earl of

Warwick

d. 1439

H5

I EDWARD IV

1461-14S3 R3 H623

Elisabeth R3

I

Edmund

Earl of

Rutland

Hb3

George

Dukeof

Clarence

d. 1479 H63R3

RICH4RJD JUL

T483-1485 H623 R3

Edward of Wales EDWARD V R3

Richard

Dukeof York

R3

Henry of

Monmouth

' Prince Hal'

Duke of Lancaster

HENRY V

1413-1422

H4H5

KATHARINE

OF FRANCE

d. 1427

Is

HENRY VI

1422-1471

H61"

Thomas

Duke of

Clarence

k. 1421

HfHs

John

Duke of

Bedford

Regent of

France

d- 1435 , H4 H5 H6l

Humphrey

' Good Duke

Humphrey'

Duke of

Gloucester

d. 1447 H41 H5 H6«

xlii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

VIII. THE CHARACTERS The King

The character of King Henry the Fourth in this play is a natural development of his character as Bolingbroke in King Richard the Second. Shakespeare gives at full length and done to the life the portrait of a man in act prompt, bold, decisive, in thought sly, subtle, far-reaching ; a character hard and cold indeed to the feelings, but written all over with success ; a character that has no im- pulsive gushes or starts, but is an embodiment of study, forecast, and calm suiting of means to preappointed ends. And this perfect self-command is in great part the secret of his strange power over others, making them almost as pliant to his purposes as are the cords and muscles of his own body; so that, as the event proves, he grows great by their feeding, till he can compass food enough without their help, and, if they go to hindering him, can eat them up. For so it turned out with the Percys ; strong sinews indeed with him for a head ; while, against him, their very strength served but to work their own overthrow.

Some points of this description are well illustrated in what Hotspur says of him just before the battle of Shrews- bury, in the speech beginning (IV, iii, 52~ 53) :

The king is kind ; and well we know the king Knows at what time to promise, when to pay.

Hotspur, to be sure, exaggerates a good deal here, as he does everywhere, still his charges have a considerable basis of truth. As further matter to the point, observe the ac- count which the king gives of himself when remonstrating with the prince against his idle courses ; which is not less

INTRODUCTION xliii

admirable for truth of history than for skill of pencil. Equally fine, also, is the account of his predecessor im- mediately following that of himself, where we see that he has the same sharp insight of men as of means and has made Richard's follies and vices his tutors ; from his mis- carriages learning how to supplant him, and perhaps en- couraging his errors, that he might make a ladder of them to mount up and overtop him.

Though policy is the leading trait in this able man, it is not so prominent as to obscure other and better traits. Even in his policy there is much of the breadth and large- ness which distinguish the statesman from the politician.

Hotspur

Hotspur is as much a monarch in his sphere as King Henry and Falstaff are in theirs ; only they rule more by power, he by stress : there is something in them that takes away the will and spirit of resistance; he makes every- thing bend to his arrogant, domineering, capricious temper. Who that has been with him in the scenes at the Palace and at Bangor can forget his bounding, sarcastic, over- bearing spirit? He is irascible, headstrong, impatient; every effort to arrest or divert him only produces a new impatience. Whatever thought strikes him, it forthwith kindles into an overmastering passion that bears down all before it. He has a rough and passionate soul, great strength and elevation of mind, with little gentleness and less delicacy, and a "force of will that rises into poetry by its own chafings." His contempt of poetry is highly char- acteristic; though it is significant that he speaks more poetry than anyone else in the play. But poetry is alto-

xliv THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

gether an impulse with him, not a purpose, as it is with Glendower; and he loses all thought of himself and his speech, in the intensity of passion with which he contem- plates the object or occasion that moves him.

Glendower

The best of historical matter for poetical and dramatic uses has seldom been turned to better account than in the portrait of Glendower. He is represented, with great art and equal truth, according to the superstitious belief of his time ; a belief in which he himself doubtless shared : for, if the winds and tempests came when he wished them, it was natural for him to think, as others thought, that they came because he wished them. A man of wild and mys- terious imaginations, he has a practical skill that makes them tell against the king ; his dealing in magic rendering him even more an object of fear than his valor and con- duct. And his behavior in the disputes with Hotspur approves him as much superior in the external qualities of a gentleman as he is more superstitious. Though no suspicion of anything false or mean can attach to Hot- spur, it is characteristic of him to indulge his haughty temper even to the thwarting of his purpose: he will hazard the blowing up of the conspiracy rather than put a bridle on his impatience ; and this the Welshman, with all his grandeur and earnestness of pretension, is too

prudent to do.

The Prince

Shakespeare brings what the old chroniclers describe as a miracle of grace in the conversion of Prince Henry from being an idler and a libertine into a wise and noble leader,

INTRODUCTION xlv

within the ordinary rules of character development. He represents the changes as taking place by the methods and proportions of nature. His early "addiction to courses vain" is accounted for by the character of Falstaff, it being no impeachment of his intellectual or moral man- hood that he is drawn away by such a mighty magazine of fascinations. It is true, he is not altogether unhurt by his connection with Sir John ; he is himself sensible of this, and the knowledge goes far to justify his final treat- ment of Falstaff. But, even in his wildest merrymakings, there may still be tasted in him a spice and flavor of manly rectitude; undesigned by him indeed, and the more assuring that he evidently does not taste it himself. Shakespeare has nothing finer in its way than the gradual sundering of the ties that bind the prince to Falstaff, as the higher elements of his nature are called forth by emergent occasions ; and his turning the dregs of unworthy companionship into food of noble thought and sentiment. His whole progress through this transformation, till "like a reappearing star" he emerges from the cloud of wildness wherein he had obscured his contemplation, is dappled with rare spots of beauty and promise.

The king displays his usual astuteness in endeavoring to make the fame of Hotspur tell upon the prince ; though he still strikes wide of his real character, misderiving his conduct from a want of noble aptitudes, whereas it springs rather from a lack of such motives and occasions with which his better aptitudes can combine. But the king knows right well there is matter in him that will take fire when such sparks are struck into it. Accordingly, before they part, the prince speaks such words, and in such a

xlvi THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

spirit, as to win his father's confidence ; the emulation kindled in him being no less noble than the object of it. Now it is that his many-sided, harmonious manhood be- gins fully to unfold itself. He has already discovered forces answering to all the attractions of Falstaff ; and it is to be hoped that none will think the worse of him for preferring the climate of Eastcheap to that of the Court. But the issue proves that he has far better forces, which sleep indeed during the absence, but spring forth at the coming, of their proper stimulants and opportunities. In the close-thronging dangers that beset his father's throne he has noble work to do ; in the thick-clustering honors of Hotspur, noble motives for doing it ; and the two to- gether furnish those more congenial attractions whereby he is gradually detached from a life of hunt-sport and drawn up into the nobly proportioned beauty with which both poetry and history have invested him.

Falstaff

Falstaff is the character in the mighty world of Shake- speare's creations who has received most attention at the hands of the master. Falstaff dominates both parts of King Henry the Fourth ; he is the hero of The Merry Wives of Windsor ; Dame Quickly's account of his death is the most impressive passage in King Henry the Fifth. Little wonder that he is universally recognized as the most humorous creation in all literature. His character baffles definition. He has so much, or is so much, that it is not easy to tell what he is. Diverse and even opposite qual- ities meet in him ; yet they poise so evenly, blend so happily, and work together so smoothly, that no general-

INTRODUCTION xlvii

ities can set him off; in any attempt to grasp him in a formal conclusion, the best part of him still escapes be- tween the fingers. One of the wittiest of men, he is not a wit; one of the most sensual of men, he cannot with strict justice be called a sensualist ; he has a strong sense of danger and a lively regard to his own safety, a peculiar vein indeed of cowardice, or something very like it, yet he is not a coward; he lies and brags prodigiously, still he is neither a liar nor a braggart.

One thing specially characteristic of Falstaff is an amazing fund of good sense. His stock of this, to be sure, is pretty much all enlisted in the service of sensuality, yet in such a way that the servant still overpeers and outshines the master. His thinking has such agility, and is at the same time so pertinent, as to do the work of the most prompt and sparkling wit ; yet in such sort as to give the impression of something much larger and stronger than wit. For mere wit, be it ever so good, requires to be spar- ingly used, and the more it tickles the sooner it tires ; like salt, it is grateful as a seasoning but will not do as food.

Never at a loss, and never apprehensive that he shall be at a loss, Falstaff never exerts himself, nor takes any concern for the result ; so that nothing is strained or far- fetched: relying calmly on his strength, he invites the toughest trials, as knowing that his powers will bring him off without any using of the whip or the spur, and by merely giving the rein to their natural briskness and celer- ity. Hence it is also that he so often lets go all regard to prudence of speech and thrusts himself into tight places and predicaments: he thus makes or seeks occasions to exercise his fertility and alertness of thought, being well

xlviii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

assured that he shall still come off uncornered, and that the greater his seeming perplexity, the greater will be his triumph. He tells his incomprehensible lies, surely, not expecting them to be believed, but partly for the pleasure he takes in the excited play of his faculties, partly for the surprise he causes by his still more incomprehensible feats of dodging. He has an eternal joy in what Robert Louis Stevenson has called the deepest imaginative pleasure of life and what every healthy child revels in — egregious make-believe.

Falstaff's overflowing humor results in a placid good nature towards those about him, and attaches them by the mere remembrance of pleasure in his company. He often abuses his associates outrageously, so far as this can be done by words, but they are not really hurt by it and never think of resenting it. Perhaps, indeed, they do not respect him enough to feel resentment towards him. But, in truth, the juiciness of his spirit not only keeps malice out of him, but keeps others from imputing it to him. His tempests of abuse break on himself as often as on others and mean just as much in the one case as in the other : they are but exercises of his powers, and this, merely for the exercise itself ; that is, they are play, having indeed a kind of earnestness, but the earnestness of sport. Whether alone or in company, he not only has all his faculties about him, but takes the same pleasure in exerting them, if it may be called exertion ; for they always seem to go of their own accord. It is remarkable that Falstaff soliloquizes more than any of Shakespeare's characters except Hamlet ; thought being equally an ever-springing impulse in them both, though in very different forms.

INTRODUCTION xlix

It is also of interest and significance that throughout the plays in which he is a dominant figure, his speeches con- tain more allusions to Bible story and doctrine than may be found in the speeches of any other Shakespeare char- acter. Most of these allusions are far from being irrever- ent and cannot be construed as anti-Puritan. In this connection some words in the hostess's story of his death (King Henry the Fifth, II, iii) may be remembered:

. . .he's in Arthur's bosom, if ever man went to Arthur's bosom. A made a finer end, and went away and it had been any christom child ; a parted ev'n just between twelve and one, ev'n at the turn- ing o' th' tide : for after I saw him fumble with the sheets and play with flowers, and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew there was but one way; for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and a babbled of green fields.

IX. STAGE HISTORY

The immediate popularity of King Henry the Fourth is attested by the numerous references to it by Shake- speare's contemporaries, their imitations of it, and the fact that it was printed at least five times before the author's death. From the first Falstaff was acclaimed as the great stage character of the play. In Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, performed in 1599, Falstaff was alluded to as a recognized character type ; and there is in- teresting proof of the vogue of the fat knight in the well- authenticated tradition that The Merry Wives of Windsor was written at the request of Queen Elizabeth, who was so delighted with the character as portrayed in King Henry the Fourth that she wished to see a play in which he would be the hero and the hero in love. John Lowin

1 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

•

(1576-1659), whose name appears in the First Folio as one of the ''Principal Actors," and who certainly was the most famous Falstaff in the reign of Charles the First, is often credited with being the original interpreter of the part, but a comparison of dates makes this conclusion im- probable, Malone gave the distinction of being the origi- nal Falstaff to John Heminge, who with Henry Condell signed "The Epistle Dedicatorie" of the First Folio. In a memorandum supposed to be by Inigo Jones, for the costume of a personage in a court masque, performed early in the reign of James the First, is this description of what was probably the costume of the character in Shake- speare's own day : "Like a Sir John Falstaffe, in a robe of russet, quite low, with a great belly, like a swollen man, long moustachios, the shoes short, and out of them great toes, like naked feet : buskins, to show a great swollen leg."

The Seventeenth Century

A version of King Henry the Fourth, under the title of Hotspur, was acted before King James in 1613. This per- formance, it may be surmised from the title, put emphasis upon the gallant chieftain of the north, as was but natural when the play was given in the presence of England's first king from Scotland. Lowin continued to be identified with the part of Falstaff until 1647, when the Puritans closed the theatres. There is a tradition that after this he kept an inn, The Three Pigeons at Brentford, and would often recite Falstaff's speeches to regale his customers. Another tradition, well authenticated, tells of his surviving the Restoration and instructing the great Shakespearian actor, Betterton, in stage business which he had learned in the

INTRODUCTION H

spacious times when Shakespeare himself trod the boards. An abridgment of King Henry the Fourth, Part I, based on the Falstaff scenes, was published under the title of The Bouncing Knight in Francis Kirkman's Wits or Sport upon Sport (1662), and professed to be a version per- formed surreptitiously when the Puritans were in power.

After the Restoration, King Henry the Fourth, Part /, seems to have been popular on the stage. The first repre- sentative of Falstaff on the re-opening of the theatres was one Cartwright, who had been a bookseller in Holborn. Pepys has several references to the play which he saw for the first time on the last night of the year, 1660. He says that he had bought a book of the play and wished to see it acted, "but my expectation being too great, it did not please me, as otherwise I believe it would : and my having a book I believe did spoil it a little." Seven years later he saw the play again and comments on it and the au- dience characteristically :

To the King's playhouse and there saw Henry the Fourth ; and, contrary to expectation, was pleased in nothing more than in Cart- wright's speaking of Falstaff 's speech about "What is Honour?" The house full of Parliament-men, it being holyday with them: and it was observable how a gentleman of good habit sitting just before us, eating of some fruit in the midst of the play, did drop down as dead, being choked ; but with much ado Orange Mall did thrust her finger down his throat, and brought him to life again.

Thomas Betterton (1635-1710), the great Shakespeare actor of the Restoration, in his younger days played Hot- spur with distinction, and his contemporary Colley Cibber describes the "wild impatient starts, that fierce and flash- ing fire," which he threw into the part.

lii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

The Eighteenth Century

In 1700 Betterton, finding himself too old to take the part of Hotspur, exchanged it for that of Falstaff and won the supreme success of his career, acting in both parts of King Henry the Fourth and in The Merry Wives of Wind- sor. His Falstaff is said to have been influenced by the 'business' of a Dublin actor called Baker, who from being a master-paver took to play-acting and became noted for such comedy parts as Sir Epicure Mammon (Ben Jonson's The Alchemist) and Falstaff. Genest in his Account of the English Stage mentions among the Falstaffs, from 1700 to 1775, Estcourt, Harper, Jack Evans, Powell, Booth, Bullock, Hall, and Mills. Perhaps the most notable per- formance of the play in these years was given at Covent Garden, December 6, 1746, when David Garrick played Hotspur to the Falstaff of James Quin, who had come to be recognized as the supreme interpreter of the part. The last noteworthy Falstaff of the eighteenth century was Henderson, who excelled particularly in the soliloquy in which Falstaff describes his ragged recruits.

The Nineteenth Century

In 1 802-1 803 the play, revised for stage purposes, was produced by the Kembles at Covent Garden, with John Philip Kemble himself as Hotspur. At later performances Fawcett, Dowton, Stephen Kemble, and even Charles Kemble, known as "the elegant," all essayed the part of Falstaff. Elliston's Falstaff and Macready's Hotspur were the features of a famous performance at Drury Lane in 1826; and a quarter of a century later, at the Princess's Theatre, when Bartley, who had become known as a most

INTRODUCTION liii

unctuous and humorous impersonator of the fat knight, took his leave of the stage, Charles Kean was Hotspur. America gave the world a most noteworthy Falstaff in the interpretation by James Henry Hackett, who was identi- fied with the part from 1832 to 1872. More recent years have seen noteworthy revivals of King Henry the Fourth under the direction of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and Sir Frank R. Benson, and the play is one of those staged with success at the annual Shakespeare Festivals at Stratford- on-Avon.

AUTHORITIES

(With the more important abbreviations used in the notes)

Qx = First Quarto, 1598. Q = Second Quarto, 1599. Q3 = Third Quarto, 1604. Q4 = Fourth Quarto, 160S. Q5 = Fifth Quarto, 1613. Qq = all the Quartos given above. Fx = First Folio, 1623. F = Second Folio, 1632. F3 = Third Folio, 1664. F4 = Fourth Folio, 1685. Ff = all the seventeenth century Folios. Rowe = Rowe's editions, 1700, 1714. Pope = Pope's editions, 1723, 1728. Theobald = Theobald's editions, 1733, 1740. Hanmer = Hanmer's edition, 1744. Johnson = Johnson's edition, 1765.

Capell = Capell's edition, 1768.

Malone = Malone's edition, 1790.

Steevens — Steevens's edition, 1793.

Globe = Globe edition (Clark and Wright), 1864. Clar = Clarendon Press edition (W. A. Wright). Dyce = Dyce's (third) edition, 1875. Delius= Delius's (fifth) edition, 1882. Camb = Cambridge (third) edition (W. A. Wright), 1891. Herford = C. H. Herford's The Eversley Shakespeare, 1903. Abbott = E. A. Abbott's A Shakespearian Grammar. Cotgrave = Cotgrave's Dictionarie of the French and English

Tongues, 1611. Schmidt = Schmidt's Shakespeare Lexicon.

Skeat = Skeat's An Etymological Dictionary. Murray = A New English Dictionary (The Oxford Dictionary) . Century = The Century Dictionary. Holinshed = Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Ireland, and Scotland (second edition), 1586-1587. Scot = Reginald Scot's The Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584.

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lix

DISTRIBUTION OF CHARACTERS

In this analysis are shown the acts and scenes in which the char- acters (see Dramatis Personae, page z) appear, with the number of speeches and lines given to each.

Note. Parts of lines are counted as whole lines.

NO. OF

NO. OF

NO. OF

NO. OP

SPEECHES

LINES

SPEECHES

LINES

King

I, i

5

74

Worcester

I, iii

■5

63

I, iii

4

45

III, i

2

■9

III, ii

5

125

IV, i

5

2!

V, i

6

47

IV, iii

3

5

V, iv

6

'9

V, i

2

47

V, v

_i

^5

V, ii

6

34

3°

335

V, v

1

31

_3

192

Prince

I, ii

29

79

II, ii

'3

28

Northumber-

II, iv

75

210

land

I, iii

10

31

III, ii

4

44

III, iii

'7

43

Hotspur

I, iii

22

i57

IV, ii

4

8

II, iii

11

65

V, i

6

28

III, i

27

"3

V, iii

4

9

IV, i

T4

74

V, iv

13

74

IV, iii

10

69

V, v

2

_li

V, ii

7

38

167

537

V, iii V, iv

5 _5.

8 16

Lancaster

V, iv V, v

4 1

7

2

101

540

5

9

Mortimer Archbishop of

III, i

1?

45

Westmore-

York

IV, iv

5

33

land

I, i IV, ii

5 2

34 6

Douglas

IV, i

5

12

V, iv

1

r

IV, iii

3

3

—

V, ii

3

6

8

41

V, iii V, iv

5 2

16 8

Blunt

I, iii

1

7

18

III, ii

1

7

45

IV, iii

V, iii

6

_3

11

'7

_z 38

Glendower

III, i

'9

74

lx

DISTRIBUTION OF CHARACTERS

lxi

NO. OF

NO. OF

no. of

NO. of

SPEECHES

LINES

speeches

LINES

Vernon

IV, i IV, iii

5 5

23

•9

2 Carrier

II, i

5

13

V, ii

_3

21

Sheriff

II, iv

5

8

13

63

Osler

II, i

1

1

Falstaff

I, ii

24

77

II, i

18

11, ii

16

55

Chamberlain

6

II, iv

III, iii

55 3°

213 1 13

Messenger

IV, i

4

6

IV, ii

1 1

60

V, 11

2

2

V, i

4

'7

6

8

V, iii

5

20

V, iv

S

J6

Bardolph

II, i

1

1

II, ii

1

1

150

59i

II, iv

5

11

Michael

IV, iv

3

8

III, iii

IV, ii

7

"

^

J

Poins

I, ii

II, ii

9

4

44 7

•7

27

II, iv

23

22

Peto

II, iv

5

M

32

73

Travellers

11, ii

3

5

Gadshill

II, i

11

36

II, ii

4

6

Thieves

II, ii

1

1

11, iv

iS

45

Servant

II, iii

3

3

Francis

II, iv

13

13

Lady Percy

II, iii

8

45

III, i

_Z 15

1 1

56

Vintner

II, iv

1

4

Hostess

II, iv

8

12

i Carrier

II, i

7

20

III, iii

JS

JA

II, iv

1 8

25

23

45

KING HENRY THE FOURTH PART I

V

DRAMATIS PERSONS King Henry the Fourth2

Henry, Prince of Wales, 1 . ,u -,r-

' ' )■ sons to the King

John of Lancaster, J

Fact m? Wu<;TMnRFT iwn

Earl of Westmoreland

Sir Walter Blunt

Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester

Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland

Henry Percy, surnamed Hotspur, son to the Earl of

Northumberland Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March Richard Scroop, Archbishop of York Archibald, Earl. of Douglas Owen Glendower Sir Richard Vernon Sir John Falstaff3

Sir Michael, a friend to the Archbishop of York Poins Gadshill Peto Bardolph4

Lady Percy, wife to Hotspur, and sister to Mortimer

Lady Mortimer, daughter to Glendower, and wife to Mortimer

Mistress Quickly, hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap

Lords, Officers, Sheriff, Vintner, Chamberlain, Drawers, two Carriers, Travelers, and Attendants

Scene : England and Wales

1 Rowe was the first to give a list of Dramatis Persona?.

2 Notes on the historical relations of the Dramatis Personse are given either in the Introduction (Historical Connections) or when each character is introduced into the play.

8 Falstaff. The name is spelled 'Falstaffe' or 'Falstalffe' in the Quartos, but ' Falstaffe ' in the First Folio.

4 Bardolph. The Quartos give ' Bardoll' or 'Bardol.'

2

ACT I

Scene I. [London. The Palace]

Enter King Henry, Lord John of Lancaster, the Earl of Westmoreland, [Sir Walter Blunt] and others

King Henry. So shaken as we are, so wan with care, Find we a time for frighted Peace to pant, And breathe short-winded accents of new broils To be commenc'd in strands afar remote. No more the thirsty entrance of this soil 5

4. strands Capell | stronds QqFxF2 | storms F3F4.

ACT I. Scene I. In the Folios, not in the Quartos, the play is divided into acts and scenes, which are given with Latin nomen- clature. The bracketed matter in the stage directions throughout the play is the work of Rowe and later editors.

1-4. The image is of Peace so scared and out of breath with domestic strife that she can but make a brief pause, and pant forth short and broken speech of new wars to be undertaken in foreign lands. This play distinctly is continuous with Richard II, at the close of which Bolingbroke avows his purpose to atone for the death of Richard by leading out another Crusade :

I'll make a voyage to the Holy Land,

To wash this blood off from my guilty hand.

And in fact he was hardly more than seated on the throne before he began to be so harassed by acts of rebellion and threats of invasion that he conceived the plan of drowning the public sense of his usurpation in an enthusiasm of foreign war and conquest. 5. entrance : mouth. Cf. Genesis, iv. 11 : "And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand."

3

4 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i

Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood ;

No more shall tjejnchmg war channel her fields,

Nor bruise her flowerets with the armed hoofs

Of hostile paces : those opposed eyes,

Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven, 10

All of one nature, of one substance bred,

Did lately meet in the intestine shock

And furious close of civil butchery,

Shall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks,

March all one way and be no more oppos'd 1 5

Against acquaintance, kindred and allies :

The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife,

No more shall cut his master). Therefore, friends,

As far as to the sepulchre of Christ,

Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross 20

We are impressed and engag'd to fight,

Forthwith a power of English shall we levy ;

Whose arms were moulded in their mothers' womb

To chase these pagans in those holy fields

Over whose acres walk'd those blessed feet 25

Which fourteen hundred years ago were nail'd

For our advantage on the bitter cross.

But this our purpose now is twelve month old,

And bootless 'tis to tell you we will go :

Therefore we meet not now. Then let me hear 30

28. now is twelve month QjQo | is a twelvemonth Ff.

7. trenching : entrenching, throwing up breastworks.

13. furious close : fierce hand-to-hand encounter.

14. mutual: united. Cf . A Midsummer Night's Dream, IV, i, 121. 18. his : its. 'Its' was just coming into use in Shakespeare's day. 30. Therefore . . . now: this is not why we are meeting.

scene i HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I

Of you, my gentle cousin Westmoreland, What yesternight our council did decree In forwarding this dear expedience.

Westmoreland. My liege, this haste question, And many limits of the charge set down 35

But yesternight : when all athwart there came A post from Wales loaden with heavy news ; Whose worst was, that the noble Mortimer, Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight Against the irregular and wild Glendower, 4o

Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken, A thousand of his people butchered ; Upon whose dead corpse there was such misuse, Such beastly shameless transformation, By those Welshwomen done as may not be 45

Without much shame retold or spoken of.

King Henry. It seems then that the tidings of this broil Brake off our business for the Holy Land.

Westmoreland. This match'd with other did, my gracious lord ;

42. A thousand Qq | And a thousand Ff.

31. 'Cousin' was often used in the general sense of 'kinsman.' Ralph Neville, the Earl of Westmoreland, married for his first wife Joan, daughter to John of Gaunt, by Catharine Swynford, and therefore half-sister to Henry IV (see Introduction, His- torical Connections).

33. dear expedience : momentous enterprise.

34. hot in question : most earnestly discussed.

43. corpse : corpses. So we have 'horse' for 'horses,' 'house' for 'houses,' 'sense' for 'senses,' etc. See Abbott, § 471.

6 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i

For more uneven and unwelcome news 50

Came from the north and thus it did import :

On Holv-rood day, the gallant Hotspur there,

Young Harry Percy and brave Archibald,

That ever-valiant and approved Scot,

At Holmedon met, 55

Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour ;

As by discharge of their artillery,

And shape of likelihood, the news was told ;

For he that brought them, in the very heat

And pride of their contention did take horse, 60

Uncertain of the issue any way.

King Henry. Here is a dear, a true industrious friend, Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse, Stain'd with the variation of each soil Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours ; 65

And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news. The Earl of Douglas is discomfited : Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights, Balk/d in their own blood did Sir Walter see On Holmedon's plains. Of prisoners, Hotspur took 70

65. that Qq I the Ff.

52. rood : cross. Cf. 2 Henry IV, III, ii, 3 ; Richard III, III, ii, 77 ; Romeo and Juliet, I, iii, 36 ; Hamlet, III, iv, 14. Holy- rood Day was the 14th of September. Hotspur is said to have been so called by the Scots, because, from the age of twelve years, when he first began to bear arms against them, "his spur was never cold." Cf. II, iv, 102-104.

58. news. Used indifferently as singular or plural ; hence 'was' and 'them.' 'Tidings' was similarly used.

64. A most vivid expression of Sir Walter's speed and diligence.

69. Balk'd : heaped. A 'balk' was a ridge left unplowed be- tween two furrows ; and to ' balk ' was to ' plow up in ridges.'

scene i HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 1

Mordake the Earl of Fife, and eldest son

To beaten Douglas ; and the Earl of Athol,

Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith :

And is not this an honourable spoil ?

A gallant prize? ha, cousin, is it not? 75

Westmoreland. In faith, It is a conquest for a prince to boast of.

King Henry. Yea, there thou mak'st me sad and mak'st me sin In envy that my Lord Northumberland Should be the father to so blest a son, 80

A son who is the theme of honour's tongue ; Amongst a grove, the very straightest plant ; Who is sweet Fortune's minion and her pride : Whilst I, by looking on the praise of him, See riot and dishonour stain the brow 85

Of my young Harry. O that it could be prov'd That some night-tripping fairy had exchang'd In cradle-clothes our children where they lay,

71. the Pope I QqFf omit.

71-72. This reads as if the Earl of Fife were the son of Douglas, whereas he was son to the Duke of Albany, who was then regent of Scotland. The matter is thus given by Holinshed : " Of prison- ers among other were these : Mordacke earle of Fife, son to the governour, Archembald earle Dowglas, which in the fight lost one of his eies." Shakespeare's mistake was evidently caused by the omission of the comma after 'governour.'

76-77. In faith, It is. Quartos and Folios give these words to King Henry. Steevens made the emendation.

83. minion : darling, favorite, pet. Frequently so.

87. Shakespeare here and elsewhere suggests that Hotspur and the Prince of Wales were of the same age; Hotspur was really the older by twenty-three years. Cf. Ill, ii, 103.

8 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i

And call'd mine Percy, his Plantagenet ! Then would I have his Harry, and he mine. 90

But let him from my thoughts. What think you, coz, Of this young Percy's pride ? the prisoners, Which he in this adventure hath surpris'd, To his own use he keeps ; and sends me word, I shall have none but Mordake Earl of Fife. 95

Westmoreland. This is his uncle's teaching : this is Worcester, Malevolent to you in all aspects ; Which makes him prune himself, and bristle up The crest of youth against your dignity.

89. Among the pranks which the ancient 'night-tripping fairies' were supposed to enact, was that of stealing choice babies out of their cradles, and leaving inferior specimens, 'changelings,' in their stead. Cf. A Midsummer Night's Dream, II, i, 120.

92-95. prisoners . . . Fife. Percy had an exclusive right to all the prisoners except the Earl of Fife. By the law of arms, every man who had taken any captive, whose redemption did not exceed ten thousand crowns, had him to himself to release or ran- som at his pleasure. But Percy could not refuse the Earl of Fife ; for since he was a prince of the royal blood, Henry might justly claim him, by his acknowledged military prerogative.

97. Malevolent . . . aspects. An astrological allusion. Worces- ter is represented as a malignant star that influenced the conduct of Hotspur. And the effect of planetary predominance, which was held to be irresistible, is implied. Cf. The Winter's Tale, II, i, 107 ; Troilus and Cressida, I, iii, 92 ; King Lear, II, ii, 112. 'Aspect' in Shakespeare is always accented on the second syllable.

98. prune. "The metaphor is taken from a cock, who in his pride 'prunes' himself, that is, picks off the loose feathers to smooth the rest. To 'prune' and to 'plume,' spoken of a bird, is the same." — Johnson. Cf. Cymbeline, V, iv, 118:

His royal bird Prunes the immortal wing, and cloys his beak.

scene ii HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 9

King Henry. But I have sent for him to answer this ; And for this cause awhile we must neglect 101

Our holy purpose to Jerusalem. Cousin, on Wednesday next our council we Will hold at Windsor ; so inform the lords : But come yourself with speed to us again ; 105

For more is to be said and to be done Than out of anger can be uttered.

Westmoreland. I will, my liege. Exeunt

Scene II. {London. An apartment of the Prince's]

Enter the Prince of Wales and Falstaff

Falstaff. Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?

Prince of Wales. Thou art so fat-witted, with drink- ing of old sack and unbuttoning thee after supper and sleeping upon benches after noon, that thou hast for- gotten to demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know. What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the day? Unless hours were cups of sack, and minutes

104. so QqF2F3F4 I and so F1. 4. after noon Qq | in the afternoone Ff.

106-107. For more . . . uttered. The king means that he must not give the reins to his tongue while his mind is in such a state of perturbation. That he should thus keep his lips closed when he is in danger of speaking indecorously is a fine trait in his character.

3. sack. "The generic name of Spanish and Canary wines." — Schmidt.

4-6. thou hast forgotten . . . know. The prince implies that Falstaff's concern is with the night rather than with the day.

10 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i

capons, and the blessed sun himself a fair hot wench in flame-coloured taffeta, I see no reason why thou shouidst be so superfluous to demand the time of the day. 10

Falstaff. Indeed, you come near me now, Hal ; for we that take purses go by the moon and the seven stars, and not by Phoebus, he, 'that wandering knight so fair.' And, I prithee, sweet wag, when thou art king, as, God save thy grace, — majesty I should say, for grace thou wilt have none, — l6

Prince of Wales. What, none?

Falstaff. No, by my troth, not so much as will serve to be prologue to an egg and butter.

Prince of Wales. Well, how then? come, roundly, roundly. 2I

Falstaff. Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not us that are squires of the night's body be called thieves of the day's beauty: let us be Diana's foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon ;

9-10. taffeta : a rich silk of a wavy luster.— thou shouidst . . . superfluous: you should give yourself the unnecessary trouble.

12. the seven stars : the Pleiades.

13. that wandering knight so fair. Falstaff quotes from some ballad based, as Steevens conjectured, on the Spanish romance El Donzel del Febo, translated into English in 1579.

18-19. not so much . . . butter : not so much grace as will serve for saying grace before meat. Eggs and butter appear to have been a favorite breakfast dish. Cf. II, i, S6-

20. roundly : speak plainly, directly, without ceremony.

23-25. squires . . . beauty. Falstaff is an inveterate player on words, as here between 'night' and 'knight,' 'beauty' and 'booty.' A ' squire of the body ' originally meant an attendant on a knight. — Diana's foresters. Hall in his Chronicle tells of a pageant ex- hibited in the reign of Henry VIII, wherein certain persons ap- peared as 'foresters' and were called 'Diana's knights.'

scene ii HENRY THE FOURTH, PART 1 1 1

and let men say we be men of good government, being governed, as the sea is, by our noble and chaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance we steal. 28

Prince of Wales. Thou say'st well, and it holds well too ; for the fortune of us that are the moon's men doth ebb and flow like the sea, being governed, as the sea is, by the moon. As, for proof, now : a purse of gold most resolutely snatch'd on Monday night and most disso- lutely spent on Tuesday morning ; got with swearing 'Lay by' and spent with crying 'Bring in'; now in as low an ebb as the foot of the ladder and by and by in as high a flow as the ridge of the gallows. 37

Falstaff. By the Lord, thou say'st true, lad. And is not my hostess of the tavern a most sweet wench?

38. By the Lord Qq | Ff omit (see note below).

28. countenance: appearance of favor, moral support. See Murray.

35. Lay by. This was in use as a nautical term for 'slacken sail.' So in Henry VIII, III, i, 10-11 :

Even the billows of the sea Hung their heads, and then lay by.

In the text it may be a phrase addressed by highwaymen to the persons they have waylaid, like " Stand ! and deliver," or it may be a phrase used by highwaymen to each other when watching for their game. — Bring in : the call for more wine.

36-37. The allusion is to the ladder by which the criminal mounted the scaffold. The 'ridge' was the crossbeam of the gallows. For 'ridge' the later Folios have 'ride.'

38. By the Lord. Omitted, like so many similar expressions, from the First Folio. A statute was passed early (1603) in the reign of James I forbidding the profane naming of the Deity and the citation of Scripture in a stage play. Hence the omission from the First Folio (1623) of many expressions found in the early Quartos (1598, i599).

12 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i

Prince of Wales. As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle. And is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance? 42

Falstaff. How now, how now, mad wag ! what, in thy quips and thy quiddities? what a plague have I to do with a buff jerkin? 45

Prince of Wales. Why, what a pox have I to do with my hostess of the tavern ?

Falstaff. Well, thou hast called her to a reckoning many a time and oft.

Prince of Wales. Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part? 51

Falstaff. No ; I'll give thee thy due, thou hast paid all there.

Prince of Wales. Yea, and elsewhere, so far as my coin would stretch ; and where it would not, I have used my credit. 56

Falstaff. Yea, and so us'd it that, were it not here apparent that thou art heir apparent — But, I prithee, sweet wag, shall there be gallows standing in England

57. were it not Oq | were it Ff.

40-41. honey of Hybla. Hybla in Sicily, like Mount Hymettus in Greece, was famous for its bees and honey. The Folios omit ' of Hybla.' Cf. Julias Ccesar, V, i, 34. — old lad of the castle : roy- sterer. It is certain that in this play, as originally written, Falstaff bore the name of Oldcastle (see Introduction) ; and the expression 'old lad of the castle' had a point to it now lost.

44. quiddities : subtleties, frivolous distinctions. From the late Latin quidditas, a term much used by mediaeval schoolmen.

45. buff jerkin : a jerkin or coat made of ox-hide, commonly worn by sheriff's officers. It seems to have been called a 'robe of durance,' both because of its great durability and because it was the wearer's business to put debtors and criminals in 'durance.'

scene ii HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 13

when thou art king ? and resolution thus fobb'd as it is with the rusty curb of old father antic the law ? Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief. 62

Prince of Wales. No ; thou shalt.

Falstaff. Shall I? O rare! By the Lord, I'll be a brave judge. 65

Prince of Wales. Thou judgest false already : I mean, thou shalt have the hanging of the thieves and so become a rare hangman.

Falstaff. Well, Hal, well ; and in some sort it jumps with my humour as well as waiting in the court, I can tell you. 71

Prince of Wales. For obtaining of suits?

Falstaff. Yea, for obtaining of suits, whereof the hangman hath no lean wardrobe. 'Sblood, I am as melancholy as a gib cat or a lugg'd bear. 75

Prince of Wales. Or an old lion, or a lover's lute.

62. king Qt I a king Q2Ff.

60. fobb'd : cheated, tricked. Cf. Coriolanus, I, i, 97.

61. antic : buffoon. Cf. Richard II, III, ii, 162.

69-70. jumps with : suits. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, II, ix, 32.

73. suits. A quibble between 'suits' meaning 'petitions' and the 'suits of clothes.' A hangman received his victim's clothes as a perquisite.

74. 'Sblood. As a sort of compromise between reverence and profanity, various oaths became so curtailed and disguised in the use that their original meaning was almost lost. Among these "Sblood' and 'Zounds' were very common, the original forms being 'God's blood' and 'God's wounds.'

75. gib cat : male cat. ' Gib ' was a contraction of ' Gilbert.' Cf. the common expression 'tomcat' of to-day. — a lugg'd bear: a performing bear dragged or led by the head through the streets. Cf. "the head-lugg'd bear," King Lear, IV, ii, 42.

14 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i

Falstaff. Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe.

Prince of Wales. What say'st thou to a hare, or the melancholy of Moor-ditch ? 80

Falstaff. Thou hast the most unsavoury similes and art indeed the most comparative, rascalliest, sweet young prince. But, Hal, I prithee, trouble me no more with vanity. I would to God thou and I knew where a com- modity of good names were to be bought. An old lord of the council rated me the other day in the street about you, sir, but I mark'd him not ; and yet he talk'd very wisely, but I regarded him not ; and yet he talk'd wisely, and in the street too. 89

Prince of Wales. Thou didst well ; for wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it. 91

82. rascalliest C^ | rascallest Ff. 90-91. wisdom . . . and

84. to God Qq I Ff omit (and so elsewhere) . Qq | Ff omit.

77-78. drone . . . bagpipe. The 'drone' was the bass tube of a bagpipe, which emits only one deep monotonous sound like that of a drone bee. Steevens refers to a " sweete ballad of The Lincoln- shire Bagpipes," referred to in a work published in 1590.

79. hare. The hare seems to have been proverbial as a type of melancholy. In illustration of the text, Staunton aptly quotes from Turberville's Book on Hunting and Falconry : " The hare first taught us the use of the hearbe called wyld Succory, which is very excel- lent for those which are disposed to be melancholicke: shee herself e is one of the most melancholicke beasts that is, and to heale her own infirmitie she goeth commonly to sit under that hearbe."

80. Moor-ditch: a part of the ditch surrounding the city of London, opening on an unwholesome morass, and therefore with an air of melancholy. So in Taylor's Pennylesse Pilgrimage (1618): "My body being tired with travel, and my mind attired with moody muddy, Moore-ditch melancholy."

82. comparative: fond of making comparisons. Cf. Ill, ii, 67. 90-91. The prince's words are based on Proverbs, i, 20.

scene ii HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 15

Falstaff. O, thou hast damnable iteration and art indeed able to corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm upon me, Hal ; God forgive thee for it ! Before I knew thee, Hal, I knew nothing ; and now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked. I must give over this life, and I will give it over : by the Lord, and I do not, I am a villain: I'll be damn'd for never a king's son in Christendom. 99

Prince of Wales. Where shall we take a purse to- morrow, Jack?

Falstaff. 'Zounds, where thou wilt, lad ; I'll make one ; and I do not, call me villain and baffle me.

Prince of Wales. I see a good amendment of life in thee ; from praying to purse-taking. 105

Falstaff. Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal ; 'tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation.

Enter Poins

Poins ! Now shall we know if Gadshill have set a match. O, if men were to be saved by merit, what hole in hell

108. Scene III. Pope. 108. match Qq | Watch Ff.

§2. damnable iteration : quoting Scripture to wicked ends.

58, 103. and : if. So in the Folios ; the Quartos and most modern editions use the form 'an.' 'And' meaning 'if is common in Middle and Elizabethan English, as well as in colloquial and pro- vincial use to-day. See Abbott, §§ 101, 103.

103. baffle : use contemptuously, treat with ignominy. Orig- inally to 'baffle' involved a punishment of infamy inflicted on recreant knights, one part of which was hanging them up by the heels. The degrading of a false knight is set forth in The Faerie Queene, V, iii, 37.

108. Gadshill. This is not only the name of a character in the play but (as in line 126) the name of a place, a low wooded hill a

1 6 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act I

were hot enough for him? This is the most omnipotent villain that ever cried 'Stand' to a true man. m

Prince of Wales. Good morrow, Ned.

Poins. Good morrow, sweet Hal. What says Monsieur Remorse ? what says Sir John Sack and Sugar ? Jack ! how agrees the devil and thee about thy soul, that thou soldest him on Good-Friday last for a cup of Madeira and a cold capon's leg? n7

Prince of Wales. Sir John stands to his word, the devil shall have his bargain ; for he was never yet a breaker of proverbs: he will give the devil his due. 120

Poins. Then art thou damn'd for keeping thy word with the devil.

Prince of Wales. Else he had been damn'd for coz- ening the devil. 124

Poins. But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning, by four o'clock, early at Gadshill ! there are pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders riding to London with fat purses : I have vizards for you all ; you have horses for yourselves : Gadshill lies to-night in

little more than two miles northwest of Rochester, on the road between London and Canterbury. It was notorious in Shake- speare's day for highway robberies. To-day the Sir John Falstaff inn stands on the summit of the hill, and a little lower on the opposite side of the road is Gad's Hill Place, where Charles Dickens lived from 1857 to his death in 1870. — set a match: made an appointment.

114. Sack and Sugar. Nares has pretty much proved Sir John's favorite beverage to have been the Spanish wine now called sherry. So in Blount's Glossographia : " Sherry sack, so called from Xeres, a town of Corduba in Spain, where that kind of sack is made." Indeed Falstaff expressly calls it sherris-sack (2 Henry IV, IV, iii, 104).

scene ii HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 17

Rochester : I have bespoke supper to-morrow night in Eastcheap : we may do it as secure as sleep. If you will go, I will stuff your purses full of crowns ; if you will not, tarry at home and be hanged. 133

Falstaff. Hear ye, Yedward ; if I tarry at home and go not, I'll hang you for going. 135

Poins. You will, chops?

Falstaff. Hal, wilt thou make one?

Prince of Wales. Who, I rob? I a thief? not I, by my faith. 139

Falstaff. There's neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in thee, nor thou cam'st not of the blood royal, if thou dar'st not stand for ten shillings.

Prince of Wales. Well then, once in my days I'll be a madcap.

Falstaff. Why, that's well said. 145

Prince of Wales. Well, come what will, I'll tarry at home.

Falstaff. By the Lord, I'll be a traitor then, when thou art king.

Prince of Wales. I care not. 150

Poins. Sir John, I prithee, leave the prince and me alone : I will lay him down such reasons for this adven- ture that he shall go. 153

Falstaff. Well, God give thee the spirit of persuasion and him the ears of profiting, that what thou speak'st

131. Eastcheap, a thoroughfare and market near London Bridge, was famous for its flesh and fish markets and its taverns. Here was Dame Quickly 's tavern.

134. Yedward : a familiar corruption of Edward. . 141-142. royal . . . shillings. A pun on 'royal,' which was a coin valued at 10s. Cf. II, iv, 291.

1 8 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i

may move and what he hears may be believed, that the true prince may, for recreation sake, prove a false thief ; for the poor abuses of the time want countenance. Fare- well : you shall find me in Eastcheap. 1 59

Prince of Wales. Farewell, thou latter spring ! fare- well, All-hallown summer ! Exit Falstaff

Poins. Now, my good sweet honey lord, ride with us to-morrow : I have a jest to execute that I cannot man- age alone. Falstaff, Bardolph, Peto and Gadshill shall rob those men that we have already waylaid ; yourself and I will not be there ; and when they have the booty, if you and I do not rob them, cut this head off from my shoulders. 168

Prince of Wales. How shall we part with them in setting forth?

Poins. Why, we will set forth before or after them, and appoint them a place of meeting, wherein it is at our pleasure to fail, and then will they adventure upon the exploit themselves ; which they shall have no sooner achieved, but we'll set upon them. 175

Prince of Wales. Yea, but 'tis like that they will

160. Farewell, thou Pope | Fare- 164. Bardolph, Peto Theobald | wel the QqFf. Haruey Rossill QqFf (see note).

161. All-hallown: All-hallows-day. All Saints' Day, the first of November. Nothing could more happily express the character of Falstaff as sowing wild oats in his old age, or as carrying on the May and June of life to the verge of winter.

164. "Theobald was the first to suggest that Harvey and Rossill were the names of the actors who performed the parts of Peto and Bardolph. But in II, iv, 173, 175, 179 for 'Ross.' which is found in the Quartos the Folios substitute not 'Bard.' but 'Cad.' i.e. 'Gadshill:"— Cambridge.

scene ii HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 19

know us by our horses, by our habits and by every other appointment, to be ourselves. 17S

Poins. Tut! our horses they shall not see; I'll tie them in the wood ; our vizards we will change after we leave them : and, sirrah, I have cases of buckram for the nonce, to immask our noted outward garments.

Prince of Wales. Yea, but I doubt they will be too hard for us. 184

Poins. Well, for two of them, I know them to be as true-bred cowards as ever turned back ; and for the third, if he fight longer than he sees reason, I'll for- swear arms. The virtue of this jest will be, the in- comprehensible lies that this same fat rogue willtell us when we meet at supper : how thirty, at least, he fought with ; what wards, what blows, what extremities he en- dured ;. and in the reproof of this lies the jest. 192

Prince of Wales. Well, I'll go with thee: provide us all things necessary and meet me to-morrow night in Eastcheap ; there I'll sup. Farewell. 195

Poins. Farewell, my lord. Exit

Prince of Wales. I know you all, and will awhile uphold The unyok'd humour of your idleness :

189. same Qx | Ff omit.

178. appointment : equipment, outfit.

1 81-182. sirrah. Used merely in a playful, familiar way, with- out implying any lack of respect. — for the nonce : for the occa- sion, for the once. See Murray.

183. doubt : fear, suspect. Frequently so.

191. wards : guards in fencing, postures of defence.

192. reproof : refutation, disproof.

198. unyok'd : untamed. Like steers not broken into work.

20 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i

Yet herein will I imitate the sun,

Who doth permit the base contagious clouds 200

To smother up his beauty from the world,

That, when he please again to be himself,

Being wanted, he may be more wond'red at,

By breaking through the foul and ugly mists

Of vapours that did seem to strangle him. 205

If all the year were playing holidays,

To sport would be as tedious as to work ;

But when they seldom come, they wish'd for come,

And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.

So, when this loose behaviour I throw off 210

And pay the debt I never promised,

By how much better than my word I am,

By so much shall I falsify men's hopes ;

And like bright metal on a sullen ground,

My reformation, glitt'ring o'er my fault, 215

Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes

Than that which hath no foil to set it off.

I'll so offend, to make offence a skill ;

Redeeming time when men think least I will. Exit

199-205. Cf. the description of the sun, Sonnets, xxxiii, 5-8. 205. strangle. Cf. Macbeth, II, iv, 7: "And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp."

209. accidents : happenings, occurrences.

213. hopes: expectations, anticipations. Cf. Othello, I, iii, 203.

214. sullen: dark, black. Cf. Richard the Second, V, vi, 48. 218. I will offend in such a way as to make my wrong-doing

seem skillful policy. Johnson says: "This speech is very artfully introduced, to keep the prince from appearing vile in the opinion of the audience : it prepares them for his future reformation ; and, what is yet more valuable, exhibits a natural picture of a great mind offering excuses to itself."

scene in HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 2 1

Scene III. [London. The palace]

Enter the King, Northumberland, Worcester, Hot- spur, Sir Walter Blunt, with others

King Henry. My blood hath been too cold and temperate, Unapt to stir at these indignities, And you have found me ; for accordingly You tread upon my patience : but be sure I will from henceforth rather be myself, 5

Mighty and to be fear'd, than my condition ; Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down, And therefore lost that title of respect Which the proud soul ne'er pays but to the proud.

Worcester. Our house, my sovereign liege, little deserves 10

The scourge of greatness to be us'd on it ; And that same greatness too which our own hands Have holp to make so portly.

Northumberland. My lord, —

King Henry. Worcester, get thee gone ; for I do see Danger and disobedience in thine eye: 16

O, sir, your presence is too bold and peremptory,

Scene III | Scene IV Pope.

3. Littledale's emendation is ingenious: "And you have found me so; accordingly ..." 'For' would be an easy misprint for 'soe' written with the long 's.'

6. condition : temper, disposition. Often so. The king means that he will rather be what his office requires than what his natural disposition prompts him to be.

13. holp. An old past form of the verb 'help.' — portly: stately, imposing. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, III, ii, 283-284.

2 2 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i

And majesty might never yet endure

The moody frontier of a servant brow.

You have good leave to leave us : when we need 20

Your use and counsel, we shall send for you.

Exit Worcester You were about to speak. To Northumberland

Northumberland. Yea, my good lord.

Those prisoners in your highness' name demanded, Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took, Were, as he says, not with such strength denied 25

As is deliver'd to your majesty : Either envy, therefore, or misprision Is guilty of this fault and not my son.

Hotspur. My liege, I did deny no prisoners. But I remember, when the fight was done, 3c

When I was dry with rage and extreme toil, Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword, Came there a certain lord, neat, and trimly dress'd, Fresh as a bridegroom ; and his chin new reap'd Show'd like a stubble-land at harvest-home; 35

He was perfumed like a milliner ;

23. name Qq | Ff omit. 27. Either . . . therefore Qq | Who

either through envy Ff.

19. frontier : military outwork, threatening fortification. So in II, hi, 51.

27. envy : malice. The sense it more commonly bears in Shakespeare. — misprision : misapprehension.

35. stubble-land. The courtier's beard, according to the fashion in Shakespeare's time, would not be closely shaved, but trimmed, and would therefore look like a stubble field.

36. milliner: "a vendor of 'fancy' wares and articles of ap- parel, especially of such as were originally of Milan manufacture." — Murray. Cf. The Winter's Tale, IV, iv, 192.

scene in HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 23

And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held

A pouncet-box, which ever and anon

He gave his nose and took't away again ;

Who therewith angry, when it next came there, 40

Took it in snuff ; and still he smil'd and talk'd,

And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,

He call'd them untaught knaves, unmannerly,

To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse

Betwixt the wind and his nobility. 45

With many holiday and lady terms

He question'd me ; amongst the rest, demanded

My prisoners in your majesty's behalf.

I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold,

To be so pest'red with a popinjay, 50

Out of my grief and my impatience,

Answer'd neglectingly I know not what,

He should, or he should not ; for he made me mad

To see him shine so brisk and smell so sweet

And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman 55

Of guns and drums and wounds, — God save the mark ! —

And telling me the sovereign 'st thing on earth

Was parmaceti for an inward bruise ;

And that it was great pity, so it was,

This villainous salt-petre should be digg'd 60

Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,

60. This Qq | That Ff.

38. pouncet-box : a small box with a perforated lid, used for holding musk or other perfumes. "Perhaps originally a misprint for 'pounced-box,' i.e. pierced or perforated box." — Murray.

41. Took it in snuff : snuffed it up. But there is a quibble on the phrase, which was equivalent to 'taking offense.'

58. parmaceti: spermaceti. A popular form.

24 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i

Which many a good tall fellow had destroy 'd

So cowardly ; and but for these vile guns,

He would himself have been a soldier.

This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord, 65

I answer'd indirectly, as I said ;

And I beseech you, let not his report

Come current for an accusation

Betwixt my love and your high majesty.

Blunt. The circumstance considered, good my lord, Whate'er Lord Harry Percy then had said 71

To such a person and in such a place, At such a time, with all the rest retold, May reasonably die and never rise To do him wrong or any way impeach 75

What then he said, so he unsay it now.

King Henry. Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners, But with proviso and exception, That we at our own charge shall ransom straight His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer ; So

Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betray'd The lives of those that he did lead to fight Against that great magician, damn'd Glendower, Whose daughter, as we hear, the Earl of March

66. I answer'd Qq | Made me to answer Ff.

64. soldier. A trisyllable here, as in Hamlet, I, v, 141 ; Julius Ccesar, IV, i, 28. See Abbott, § 470.

78. exception. A quadrisyllable. Cf. lines 147, 150, and 226.

84. Earl of March. The Mortimer who had been sent into Wales was not the Earl of March, but Sir Edmund Mortimer, uncle to the Earl, and therefore perhaps distrusted by the king, as the natural protector of his nephew. At this time the Earl of March was but about ten years old, and was held in safe-keeping

scene in HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 25

Hath lately married. Shall our coffers, then, 85

Be emptied to redeem a traitor home?

Shall we buy treason? and indent with fears,

When they have lost and forfeited themselves?

No, on the barren mountains let him starve;

For I shall never hold that man my friend 90

Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost

To ransom home revolted Mortimer.

Hotspur. Revolted Mortimer ! He never did fall off, my sovereign liege, But by the chance of war: to prove that true 95

Needs no more but one tongue for all those wounds, Those mouthed wounds, which valiantly he took, While on the gentle Severn's sedgy bank, In single opposition, hand to hand, He did confound the best part of an hour 100

In changing hardiment with great Glendower: Three times they breath 'd and three times did they drink, Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood ;

at Windsor. The mistake runs through Holinshed's chapter on the reign of Henry IV.

87. indent with : make a covenant or compact with. The expression here suggests to compromise or make terms. — fears: persons to be feared. — Shakespeare sometimes uses subject and object interchangeably. Cf. Macbeth, I iii, 138-139: "Present fears Are less than horrible imaginings," where 'fears' is put for 'danger,' that is, the things or persons feared. The meaning of the passage in the text probably is, Shall we buy off traitors, or make terms with persons once dangerous indeed, but who have now forfeited and lost whatsoever rendered them formidable ?

100. confound: spend, consume. Cf. Coriolanus, I, vi, 17-18: "How couldst thou in a mile confound an hour?"

101. changing hardiment: courageous exchange of blows.

26 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i

Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks,

Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds, 105

And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank

Bloodstained with these valiant combatants.

Never did base and rotten policy

Colour her working with such deadly wounds ;

Nor never could the noble Mortimer no

Receive so many, and all willingly :

Then let not him be sland'red with revolt.

King Henry. Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou dost belie him ; He never did encounter with Glendower: I tell thee, 115

He durst as well have met the devil alone As Owen Glendower for an enemy. Art thou not asham'd ? But, sirrah, henceforth Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer : Send me your prisoners with the speediest means, 120 Or you shall hear in such a kind from me As will displease you. My Lord Northumberland, We license your departure with your son. Send us your prisoners, or you will hear of it.

Exeunt King Henry, [Blunt, and train]

108. base and Ff | bare and Qq. 112. not him 01 | him not Ff.

106. crisp: rippled, curled. Cf. The Tempest, IV, i, 130: "leave your crisp channels." The same image occurs in Beaumont and Fletcher's Loyal Subject : " The Volga trembled at his terror, and hid his seven curled heads." So in Ben Jonson's Vision of Delight : "The rivers run as smoothed by his hand, Only their heads are crisped by his stroke."

109. Colour : disguise.

113. belie him: give a false account of his conduct.

scene in HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 27

Hotspur. And if the devil come and roar for them, 125 I will not send them : I will after straight And tell him so ; foxJ^ML£as^_iny-heart, Albeit I make_a_ hazard of my head.

Northumberland. What, drunk with choler? stay and pause awhile : Here comes your uncle.

Re-enter Worcester

Hotspur. Speak of Mortimer! ,130

'Zounds, I will speak of him ; and let my soul Want mercy, if I do not join with him : Yea, on his part I'll empty all these veins, And shed my dear blood drop by drop in the dust, But I will lift the down-trod Mortimer 135

As high in the air as this unthankful king, As this jngrate_and cank^dJBohjigbroke.

Northumberland. Brother, the king hath made your nephew mad.

Worcester. Who struck this heat up after I was gone?

Hotspur. He will, forsooth, have all my prisoners ; And when I urg'd the ransom once again 141

Of my wife's brother, then his cheek look'd pale, And on my face he turn'd an eye of death, Trembling even at the name of Mortimer.

128. Albeit I make a Qq | Although it be with Ff.

125. And if. For this intensification of the conditional use of 'and,' see Abbott, §103. So in II, iii, 87; IV, ii, 7-

137. cank'red: malignant. Used of anything that corrodes. -43- eYe of death: eye that threatens death.

28 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act 1

Worcester. I cannot blame him : was not he pro- claim'd 145 By Richard that dead is the next of blood?

Northumberland. He was; I heard the proclama- tion : Qjl^ And then it was when the unhappy king, — Whose wrongs in us God pardon! — did set forth Upon his Irish expedition; 150 From whence he intercepted did return To be depos'd and shortly murdered,

Worcester. And for whose death we in the world's wide mouth Live scandaliz'd and foully spoken of.

Hotspur. But, soft, I pray you ; did King Richard then 155

Proclaim my brother Edmund Mortimer Heir to the crown ?

Northumberland. He did ; myself did hear it.

Hotspur. Nay, then I cannot blame his cousin king, That wish'd him on the barren mountains starve. But shall it be, that you, that set the crown 160

152. murdered Q1 | murthered Ff (and so elsewhere).

145-146. proclaim'd . . . the next of blood. Roger Morti- mer, Earl of March, was declared heir-apparent to the crown in 1385, but was killed in Ireland in 1398. His mother was Philippa, the only child of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, who was the second son of Edward III. In the strict order of succession the crown was due to Edmund Mortimer, the son of Roger, who was accord- ingly proclaimed heir-apparent by Richard II.

149. wrongs in us : the wrongs which we inflicted on him. The Percys had been the chief supporters of Bolingbroke in his usurpation.

scene in HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 29

Upon the head of this forgetful man

And for his sake wear the detested blot

Of murderous subornation, shall it be,

That you a world of curses undergo,

Being the agents, or base second means, 165

The cords, the ladder, or the hangman rather?

O, pardon me that I descend so low,

To show the line and the predicament

Wherein you range under this siihtle king;

Shall it for shame be spoken in these days, 170

Or fill up chronicles in time to come,

That men of your nobility and power

Did gage them both in an unjust behalf,

As both of you — God pardon it ! — have done,

To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose, 175

And plant this thorn, this canker. Bolingbroke?

And shall it in more shame be further spoken,

That you are fool'd, discarded and shook off

By him for whom these shames ye underwent?

No ; yet time serves wherein you may redeem 180

Your banish'd honours and restore yourselves

Into the good thoughts of the world again,

Revenge the jeering and disdain'd contempt

167. me Q1 I if Ff.

163. murderous subornation: instigation to murder.

168. predicament : class or description of men.

173. gage : pledge. — both. Referring to 'nobility' and 'power.'

176. canker: dog-rose. The rose of the hedge, not of the garden. Cf. Much Ado About Nothing, I, iii, 28-29: "I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace."

183. disdain'd: disdainful, disdaining. An instance of the in- discriminate use of active and passive forms. See Abbott, § 374.

30 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i

Of this proud king, who studies day and night To answer all the debt he owes to you 1S5

Even with the bloody payment of your deaths : Therefore, I say, —

Worcester. Peace, cousin, say no more :

And now I will unclasp a secret book, And to your quick-conceiving discontents I'll read you matter deep and dangerous, 190

As full of peril and adventurous spirit As to o'er-walk a current roaring loud On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.

Hotspur. If he fall in, good night ! or sink or swim : Send danger from the east unto the west, 195

So honour cross it from the north to south, And let them grapple : O, the blood more stirs To rouse a lion than to start a hare !

Northumberland. Imagination of some great exploit. Drives him beyond the bounds of patience. 200

Hotspur. By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap, To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon, Or dive into the bottom of the deep, Where fathom-line could never touch the ground, And pluck up drowned honour by the locks ; 205

So he that doth redeem her thence might wear Withoufcorrival all her dignities : But out upon this half-fac'd fellowship !

Worcester. He apprehends a world of figures here, But not the form of what he should attend. 210

Good cousin, give me audience for a while.

201. Hotspur Qj | Ff omit. 211. After this line the Folios insert 'And list to me.'

scene in HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 31

Hotspur. I cry you mercy.

Worcester. These same noble Scots

That are your prisoners, —

Hotspur. I'll keep them all;

By God, he shall not have a Scot of them; No, if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not: 215

I'll keep them, by this hand.

Worcester. You start away

And lend no ear unto my purposes. Those prisoners you shall keep.

Hotspur. Nay, I will ; that's flat :

He said he would not ransom Mortimer; Forbad my tongue to speak of Mortimer ; 220

But I will find him when he lies asleep, And in his ear I'll holla 'Mortimer! ' Nay,

I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak Nothing but 'Mortimer,' and give it him, 225

To keep his anger still in motion.

Worcester. Hear you, cousin ; a word.

Hotspur. All studies here I solemnly defy, Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke : And that same sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales, 230 But that I think his father loves him not

224. For the omission of the relative see Abbott, §244.

228. defy : renounce, abjure. So in IV, i, 6. Cf. King John, III, iv, 23 : "No, I defy all counsel, all redress."

230. sword-and-buckler. "Upon the introduction of the rapier and dagger, the sword and buckler fell into desuetude among the higher classes, and were accounted fitting weapons for the vulgar only, such as Hotspur implies were the associates of the prince." — Staunton.

32 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act I

And would be glad he met with some mischance, I would have him poison'd with a pot of ale.

Worcester. Farewell, kinsman : I'll talk to you When you are better temp'red to attend. 235

Northumberland. Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool Art thou to break into this woman's mood, Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own !

Hotspur. Why, look you, I am whipp'd and scourg'd with rods, ^£b

Nettled and stung with pismires, when I hear 240

Of this yile politician, Bolingbroke. In Richard's time, — what do you call the place? — A plague upon it, it is in Gloucestershire ; 'Twas where the madcap duke his uncle kept, His uncle York ; where I first bow'd my knee 245

Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke, — 'Sblood!— ' When you and he came back from Ravenspurgh.

Northumberland. At Berkley castle.

236. wasp-stung Q1 | wasp-tongu'd 247. 'Sblood Qx | Ff omit (and

Ff. elsewhere).

233. Hotspur is here speaking out of his anger and impatience : not that he could seriously think of doing what he says ; for he is the soul of honor, and incapable of anything mean.

240. pismires : ants. Still common in dialect.

241. politician: schemer. This word has usually a sinister sig- nification in Shakespeare. — Bolingbroke. Henry Plantagenet, the king of this play, was surnamed Bolingbroke from a castle in Lin- colnshire, where he was born. His father, John of Gaunt, was so called from the place of his birth, the city of Ghent in Flanders.

244. kept: dwelt. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, III, hi, 18-19: "The most impenetrable cur That ever kept with men."

scene in HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 33

Hotspur. You say true: 250

Why, what a candy deal of courtesy This fawning_grfiyhound then did proffer me ! Look, 'when his infant fortune came to age,' And 'gentle Harry Percy,' and 'kind cousin'; O, the devil take such cozeners ! God forgive me 1 255 Good uncle, tell your tale ; I have done.

Worcester. Nay, if you have not, to it again ; We will stay your leisure.

Hotspur. I have done, i' faith.

Worcester. Then once more to your Scottish pris- oners. Deliver them up without their ransom straight, 260

And make the Douglas' son your only mean For powers in Scotland ; which, for divers reasons Which I shall send you written, be assur'd, Will easily be granted. You, my lord,

To Northumberland Your son in Scotland being thus employ'd, 265

Shall secretly into the bosom creep Of that same noble prelate, well belov'd, The archbishop.

Hotspur. Of York, is it not?

258. i' faith Q1 | in sooth Ff (and elsewhere).

251. a candy deal of courtesy : a deal of sugared courtesy. Cf. Hamlet, III, ii, 65: "No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp."

255. cozeners : cheats, swindlers. Hotspur is snapping off a pun or play between 'cousin' and 'cozener.' Cf. Richard III, IV, iv, 222-223: "Cousins, indeed; and by their uncle cozen'd Of comfort, kingdom, kindred, freedom, life."

261-262. mean For powers : agent for raising forces.

34 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i

Worcester. True ; who bears hard 270

His brother's death at Bristol, the Lord Scroop. I speak not this in estimation, As what I think might be, but what I know Is ruminated, plotted and set down, And only stays but to behold the face 275

Of that occasion that shall bring it on.

Hotspur. I smell it : upon my life, it will do well.

Northumberland. Before the game's afoot, thou still let'st slip.

Hotspur. Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot : And then the power of Scotland and of York, 280

To join with Mortimer, ha?

Worcester. And so they shall.

Hotspur. In faith, it is exceedingly well aim'd.

Worcester. And 'tis no little reason bids us speed, To save our heads by raising of a head ; For, bear ourselves as even as we can, 285

The king will always think him in our debt, And think we think ourselves unsatisfied, Till he hath found a time to pay us home :

278. games 's Ff | game is QiQ2 Globe.

272. in estimation : on mere conjecture or inference.

278. still: always, continually. Often so. — let'st slip. The met- aphor is taken from hunting. To 'let slip' is to loose the hounds from the leash of leather by which they were held in hand till it was time to let them pursue the game. Cf. Julius Ccesar, III, ii, 273; Coriolanus, I, vi, 39; Henry V, II, ii, 3.

284. head : armed force. Cf. V, i, 66.

288. pay . . . home : punish thoroughly. Cf. The Tempest, V, i, 70-71 : "I will pay thy graces Home both in word and deed"; where, however, 'pay' means 'reward.'

scene in HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 35

And see already how he doth begin

To make us strangers to his looks of love. 290

Hotspur. He does, he does : we'll be reveng'd on him.

Worcester. Cousin, farewell : no further go in this Than I by letters shall direct your course. When time is ripe, which will be suddenly, I'll steal to Glendower and Lord Mortimer; 295

Where you and Douglas and our powers at once, As I will fashion it, shall happily meet, To bear our fortunes in our own strong arms, Which now we hold at much uncertainty.

Northumberland. Farewell, good brother : we shall thrive, I trust. 300

Hotspur. Uncle, adieu : O, let the hours be short Till fields and blows and groans applaud our sport !

Exeunt

292. Cousin. Often used as a title of courtesy, and applied to 'urcle,' 'nephew,' 'niece,' or even 'grandchild.' Cf. I, i, 31, and see note.

ACT II

Scene I. [Rochester. An inn yard]

Enter a Carrier with a lantern in his hand

1 Carrier. Heigh-ho ! an it be not four by the day, I'll be hang'd : Charles' wain is over the new chimney, and yet our horse not pack'd. What, ostler ! Ostler. [Within] Anon, anon. 4

1 Carrier. I prithee, Tom, beat Cut's saddle, put a few flocks in the point; poor jade, is wrung in the withers out of all cess.

i. an: if. So in Quartos and Folios. See note, I, ii, 98.

2. Charles' wain. The common name for the constellation called the Great Bear. The name is derived from Charlemagne. "The guess 'churl' or 'carl's wain' has been made in ignorance of the history."— Murray.

4. Anon: immediately. Equivalent to the modern waiter's ' Com- ing!' So in II, iv, 25, 36, 43, 51, 86, and elsewhere.

5. beat Cut's saddle. 'Cut' seems to have been a common name for a horse, and the general meaning is, 'beat the saddle until it is soft; Probably 'Cut' in this sense is connected with 'curtal,' which originally meant a horse with its tail cut or docked and sometimes with the ears cropped (cf. II, iii, 68). Both 'cut' and 'curtal' came to be applied to persons in an offensive sense.

6-7. flocks: flakes of wool.— wrung . . . withers. The 'with- ers' of a horse is the ridge between the shoulder bones at the bottom of the neck, under the point of the saddle. 'Wrung' as thus used is the same as 'gall'd.' Cf. Hamlet, III, ii, 252-253. — out of all cess: beyond all measure. The etymological spelling is 'sess,' an aphetic form of 'assessment.'

36

scene i HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 37

Enter another Carrier

2 Carrier. Peas and beans are as dank here as a dog, and that is the next way to give poor jades the bots: this house is turned upside down since Robin Ostler died. n

1 Carrier. Poor fellow, never joy'd since the price of oats rose ; it was the death of him.

2 Carrier. I think this be the most villainous house in all London road for fleas: I am stung like a tench. 16

1 Carrier. Like a tench ! by the mass, there is ne'er a king christen could be better bit than I have been since the first cock. What, ostler ! come away and be hang'd ! come away. 20

2 Carrier. I have a gammon of bacon and two razes of ginger, to be delivered as far as Charing-cross.

9. that Qx I this Ff. 17. by the mass Q1 | Ff omit.

14. this be Qi | this is Ff. 18. christen Qt | in Christendome Ff.

8. dank: moist, damp. So in A Midsummer Night's Dream, II, ii, 75 ; Romeo and Juliet, II, iii, 6; Julius Ccesar, II, i, 263.

9. dog. The dog was probably as much overworked in allitera- tive comparisons three centuries ago as he is now. — the next way: the nearest way. So in III, i, 261.

10. bots : parasitical worms especially infesting horses. 15-16. stung . . . tench. Probably another jingling simile, like

'dank as a dog,' but in Holland's translation (London, 1601) of the ninth book of Pliny's Natural History is an account of the old belief that fishes in summer were often stung by fleas.

22. razes : roots tied in a bundle. In The Famous Victories of Henry V (see Introduction, Sources) is a reference to "the great rase of ginger," of which Dericke the carrier is robbed at Gadshill. — Charing-cross. This ancient shrine, now in the heart of London, was in the outskirts in the sixteenth century.

38 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii

1 Carrier. God's body ! the turkeys in my pannier are quite starv'd. What, ostler ! A plague on thee ! hast thou never an eye in thy head ? canst not hear ? And 'twere not as good deed as drink, to break the pate on thee, I am a very villain. Come, and be hang'd ! hast no faith in thee? 28

Enter Gadshill

Gadshill. Good morrow, carriers. What's o'clock? 1 Carrier. I think it be two o'clock. 30

Gadshill. I prithee, lend me thy lantern, to see my gelding in the stable.

1 Carrier. Nay, by God, soft ; I know a trick worth two of that, i' faith.

Gadshill. I pray thee, lend me thine. 35

2 Carrier. Ay, when? canst tell? Lend me thy lantern, quoth he? marry, I'll see thee hang'd first.

Gadshill. Sirrah carrier, what time do you mean to come to London? 39

2 Carrier. Time enough to go to bed with a candle, I warrant thee. Come, neighbour Mugs, we'll call up the gentlemen : they will along with company, for they have great charge. Exeunt Carriers

23. God's body Qx | Ff omit. 31. lantern Ol | Lanthorne FjF2.

23. turkeys. An anachronism. Turkeys were not brought into England until the reign of Henry VIII.

26. And: if. See note, I, ii, 98. So in II, ii, 43; iii, 21; iv, 143, 237, 377, 413 ! HI, i, 262 ; iii, 7, 152.

30. two o'clock. The carrier has already said (lines 1-2), "an it be not four by the day, I'll be hang'd." Probably he suspects Gadshill, and tries to mislead him.

scene i HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 39

Gadshill. What, ho! chamberlain! 44

Chamberlain. [Within] At hand, quoth pick-purse.

Gadshill. That's even as fair as — at hand, quoth

the chamberlain ; for thou variest no more from picking

of purses than giving direction doth from labouring;

thou lay'st the plot how. 49

Enter Chamberlain

Chamberlain. Good morrow, Master Gadshill. It holds current that I told you yesternight: there's a franklin in the wild of Kent hath brought three hundred marks with him in gold : I heard him tell it to one of his company last night at supper ; a kind of auditor ; one that hath abundance of charge too, God knows what. They are up already, and call for eggs and butter : they will away presently. 57

Gadshill. Sirrah, if they meet not with Saint Nicho- las' clerks, I'll give thee this neck.

44. Scene II Pope.

44. chamberlain. An attendant at an inn, in charge of the bed- chambers. As here represented, chamberlains often concerted with highwaymen for the waylaying of travelers.

45. A slang phrase of the time, often found in old plays.

52. franklin: freeholder, yeoman. The designation of a class of small landowners, of free but not noble birth and ranking next below the gentry. See the description of the Franklin in Chaucer's Prologue. — wild: weald, open country.

54. auditor: officer of the revenue or exchequer.

55. abundance of charge. Probably money belonging to the state; as Bardolph afterwards says (II, ii, 52-53), "'tis going to the king's exchequer."

58-59. Saint Nicholas' clerks: thieves, highwaymen. Since Nicholas or Old Nick was a cant name for the devil, thieves were equivocally called 'St. Nicholas' clerks.'

40 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii

Chamberlain. No, I'll none of it : I pray thee, keep that for the hangman ; for I know thou worshipp'st Saint Nicholas as truly as a man of falsehood may. 62

Gadshill. What talkest thou to me of the hangman ? if I hang, I'll make a fat pair of gallows; for if I hang, old Sir John hangs with me, and thou know'st he is no starveling. Tut ! there are other Trojans that thou dream'st not of, the which for sport sake are con- tent to do the profession some grace ; that would, if matters should be look'd into, for their own credit sake, make all whole. I am join'd with no foot land-rakers, no long-staff sixpenny strikers, none of these mad mus- tachio purple-hued malt-worms ; but with nobility and tranquillity, burgomasters and great oneyers, such as can hold in, such as will strike sooner than speak, and speak

66. starveling. Cf. Starveling in A Midsummer Night's Dream. — Trojans. Another cant term for thieves. Cf. Love's Labour's Lost, V, ii, 640; Henry V, V, i, 20. See note, II, i, 12.

70. foot land-rakers : tramps going on foot, vagabonds.

71-72. long-staff . . . strikers : fellows that infested the roads with long-staffs and knocked men down for a paltry coin. 'Striker' was a common name for a petty thief. — mad . . . malt-worms: topers whose fierce-looking mustachios are stained purple with liquor.

73. oneyers. Many emendations have been suggested, such as ' moneyers,' ' owners,' ' mynheers,' etc. Malone interpreted the word as 'public accountants'; Grant White contends that it is a playfulexpressionfor' ones' with the punning senseof ' owners 'added.

74. hold in. Apparently a term of the chase, applied to a pack of hounds when they all acted in concert, or pulled together in pursuit of the game. So that the sense of the phrase as applied to men would be 'stick by each other,' or 'be true to each other.' This interpretation appears to be sustained by a passage in Turber- ville's Booke of Hunting: "If they run it endways orderly and make it good, then, when they hold in together merrily, we say, They are in a crie."

scene i HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 41

sooner than drink, and drink sooner than pray : and yet, 'zounds, I lie ; for they pray continually to their saint, the commonwealth ; or rather, not pray to her, but prey on her, for they ride up and down on her and make her their boots. 79

Chamberlain. What, the commonwealth their boots? will she hold out water in foul way ?

Gadshill. She will, she will ; justice hath her. We steal as in a castle, cock-sure ; we have the receipt of fern-seed, we walk invisible. 84

Chamberlain. Nay, by my faith, I think you are more beholding to the night than to fern-seed for your walking invisible.

Gadshill. Give me thy hand : thou shalt have a share in our purchase, as I am a true man. 89

Chamberlain. Nay, rather let me have it, as you are a false thief.

Gadshill. Go to; 'homo' is a common name to all men. Bid the ostler bring my gelding out of the stable. Farewell, you muddy knave. Exeunt

79, 80. boots. Used in the double sense of 'booty' and 'advan- tage.' Cf. Ill, i, 67-68.

81. hold . . . way : keep out water on a muddy road.

82. liquor'd: greased with tallow. Cf. The Merry Wives of Windsor, IV, v, 100-102: "They would melt me out of my fat drop by drop, and liquor fishermen's boots with me."

8.*. receipt . . . invisible. Fern-seed was thought to have the power of rendering invisible those who carried it. So in Ben Jon- son's New Inn, i, 1 : " Because indeed I had No med'cine, sir, to go invisible ; No fern-seed in my pocket."

89. purchase: gain, profit, whether legally or illegally obtained. Cf. Henry V, III, ii, 44-45 : "They will steal any thing, and call it purchase."— true man. Repeatedly in this play for 'honest man,'

42 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii

Scene II. [The highway, near Gadshill]

Enter Prince Henry and Poins

Poins. Come, shelter, shelter: I have remov'd Fal- staff's horse, and he frets like a gumm'd velvet. Prince Henry. Stand close.

Enter Falstaff

Falstaff. Poins ! Poins, and be hang'd ! Poins !

Prince Henry. Peace, ye fat-kidney'd rascal! what a brawling dost thou keep ! 6

Falstaff. Where's Poins, Hal?

Prince Henry. He is walk'd up to the top of the hill : I'll go seek him. 9

Falstaff. I am accurs'd to rob in that thief's com- pany : the rascal hath remov'd my horse, and tied him I know not where. If I travel but four foot by the squier further afoot, I shall break my wind. Well, I doubt not but to die a fair death for all this, if I scape hanging for killing that rogue. I have forsworn his company hourly

Scene II | Scene III Pope.

and so antithetic to 'thief.' In II, ii, 91, the prince says, "The thieves have bound the true men." The usage was common.

2. frets . . . velvet. A quibble. Velvet and taffeta were some- times stiffened with gum ; in which cases the fabric soon got fretted away and spoilt. Cf. Marston, The Malcontent (1604) : "I'll come among ye, like gum into taffeta, to fret, fret."

10. to rob: in robbing. The infinitive used indefinitely or ge- rundively. Often so in Shakespeare. See Abbott, § 356.

12. by the squier: measured by the foot-rule.

14. scape. An aphetic form of 'escape.' Cf.' squire 'for 'esquire.' So in line 59; III, i, 69; V, hi, 30.

scene ii HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 43

any time this two and twenty years, and yet I am be- witch'd with the rogue's company. If the rascal have not given me medicines to make me love him, I'll be hang'd ; it could not be else ; I have drunk medicines. Poins ! Hal ! a plague upon you both ! Bardolph ! Peto ! I'll starve ere I'll rob a foot further. An 'twere not as good a deed as drink, to turn true man and to leave these rogues, I am the veriest varlet that ever chew'd with a tooth. Eight yards of uneven ground is threescore and ten miles afoot with me ; and the stony-hearted villains know it well enough : a plague upon it when thieves cannot be true one to another! [They whistle] Whew ! A plague upon you all ! Give me my horse, you rogues ; give me my horse, and be hang'd ! 29

Prince Henry. Peace, ye fat-guts! lie down; lay thine ear close to the ground and list if thou canst hear the tread of travellers. 32

Falstaff. Have you any levers to lift me up again, being down? 'Sblood, I'll not bear mine own flesh so far afoot again for all the coin in thy father's exchequer. What a plague mean ye to colt me thus ? 36

Prince Henry. Thou liest ; thou art not colted, thou art uncolted.

Falstaff. I prithee, good Prince Hal, help me to my horse, good king's son. 40

28. plague Ql I plague light Ff.

18. medicines . . . love him. Alluding to the love-philters, potions or powders, which were supposed to have the effect in question. Cf. Othello, I, iii, 60-61 : "She is abus'd, stol'n from me, and corrupted By spells, and medicines, bought of mountebanks."

36. colt : trick, fool, deceive. The prince proceeds to play on the word, for Falstaff has lost his horse.

44 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii

Prince Henry. Out, ye rogue ! shall I be your ostler ?

Falstaff. Go hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent garters! If I be ta'en, I'll peach for this. And I have not ballads made on you all and sung to filthy tunes, let a cup of sack be my poison : when a jest is so forward, and afoot too ! I hate it. 46

Enter Gadshill, [Bardolph and Peto with him]

Gadshill. Stand.

Falstaff. So I do, against my will.

Poins. O, 'tis our setter: I know his voice. Bardolph, what news? 50

Bardolph. Case ye, case ye ; on with your vizards : there 's money of the king's coming down the hill ; 'tis going to the king's exchequer.

Falstaff. You lie, ye rogue ; 'tis going to the king's tavern. 55

Gadshill. There's enough to make us all.

Falstaff. To be hang'd.

Frince. Sirs, you four shall front them in the narrow lane ; Ned Poins and I will walk lower : if they scape from your encounter, then they light on us. 60

Peto. How many be there of them?

Gadshill. Some eight or ten.

Falstaff. 'Zounds, will they not rob us?

42. Go Ff I Qj omits. 61. How . . . there Qt | But how many be Ff.

43. garters. An allusion to the Order of the Garter and to the proverb, "Let him hang himself in his own garters."

44. ballads . . . you. Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, V, ii, 216.

49. setter. Gadshill was to 'set a match' (I, ii, 108).

50. what news? Johnson assigned this to Bardolph and gave Bardolph 's reply to Gadshill.

scene ii HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 45

Prince Henry. What, a coward, Sir John Paunch?

Falstaff. Indeed, I am not John of Gaunt, your grandfather ; but yet no coward, Hal. 66

Prince Henry. Well, we leave that to the proof.

Poins. Sirrah Jack, thy horse stands behind the hedge : when thou needest him, there thou shalt find him. Farewell, and stand fast. 70

Falstaff. Now cannot I strike him, if I should be hanged.

Prince Henry. Ned, where are our disguises?

Poins. Here, hard by : stand close.

Exeunt Prince Henry and Poins

Falstaff. Now, my masters, happy man be his dole, say I : every man to his business. 76

Enter the Travellers

First Traveller. Come, neighbour: the boy shall lead our horses down the hill ; we'll walk afoot awhile, and ease our legs.

Thieves. Stand ! 80

Travellers. Jesus bless us !

Falstaff. Strike ; down with them ; cut the villains' throats : ah ! whoreson caterpillars ! bacon-fed knaves ! they hate us youth : down with them ; fleece them.

Travellers. O, we are undone, both we and ours for ever! 86

77. Scene IV Pope. 80. Stand Ql | Stay Ff.

75. happy . . . dole: may happiness be ours. This was a com- mon proverb. 'Dole' means 'lot' or 'share' meted out by fortune. Cf. The Winter's Tale, I, ii, 163 ; The Merry Wives of Windsor, III, iv, 68; The Taming of the Shrew, I, i, 144.

46 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii

Falstaff. Hang ye, gorbellied knaves, are ye un- done ? No, ye fat chuffs ; I would your store were here ! On, bacons, on ! What, ye knaves ! young men must live. You are grandjurors, are ye? we'll jure ye, 'faith. 90 Here they rob them and bind them. Exeunt

Re-enter Prince Henry and Poins

Prince Henry. The thieves have bound the true men. Now could thou and I rob the thieves and go merrily to London, it would be argument for a week, laughter for a month and a good jest for ever.

Poins. Stand close ; I hear them coming. 95

Enter the Thieves again

Falstaff. Come, my masters, let us share, and then to horse before day. An the Prince and Poins be not two arrant cowards, there's no equity stirring: there's no more valour in that Poins than in a wild-duck.

Prince Henry. Your money ! 100

Poins. Villains !

As they are sharing, the Prince and Poins set upon them ; they all run away ; and Fal- staff, after a blow or two, runs away too, leaving the booty behind them

87. gorbellied: pot-bellied. Falstaff, "a huge hill of flesh," reviling his victims for their corpulence, is an obvious stroke of humor. Similar are his exclamations " they hate us youth" (line 84) and "young men must live" (line 89).

88. chuffs. A 'chuff,' according to Richardson, is a "burly, swollen man ; swollen either with gluttony and guzzling, or with ill tempers." Very often the word carried with it the suggestion of miserliness and avarice. See Murray.

90. grandjurors: men of social pretensions.

scene in HENRY THE FOURTH, TART I 47

Prince Henry. Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse : The thieves are all scatt'red and possess'd with fear So strongly that they dare not meet each other ; Each takes his fellow for an officer. 105

Away, good Ned. Falstaff sweats to death, And lards the lean earth as he walks along: Were 't not for laughing, I should pity him.

Poins. How the rogue roar'd ! Exeunt

Scene III. [Warkworth Castle]

Enter Hotspur, solus, reading a letter

Hotspur. 'But, for mine own part, my lord, I could be well contented to be there, in respect of the love I bear your house.' He could be contented : why is he not, then? In respect of the love he bears our house: he shows in this, he loves his own barn better than he loves our house. Let me see some more. 'The purpose you undertake is dangerous'; — why that's certain: 'tis dan- gerous to take a cold, to sleep, to drink ; but I tell you, my lord fool, out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety. 'The purpose you undertake is danger- ous ; the friends you have named uncertain ; the time itself unsorted ; and your whole plot too light for the counterpoise of so great an opposition.' Say you so, say

Scene III | Scene V Pope.

1. Enter . . . letter. This letter has been ascribed to George Dunbar (see note, III, ii, 164), Earl of March, in Scotland, and also to Rokeby, High Sheriff of Yorkshire. It is unnecessary to ascribe it to any particular person.

48 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii

you so? I say unto you again, you are a shallow cowardly hind, and you lie. What a lack-brain is this! By the Lord, our plot is a good plot as ever was laid ; our friends true and constant : a good plot, good friends, and full of expectation ; an excellent plot, very good friends. WThat a frosty-spirited rogue is this ! Why, my lord of York commends the plot and the general course of the action. 'Zounds, and I were now by this rascal, I could brain him with his lady's fan. Is there not my father, my uncle and myself? lord Edmund Mortimer, my lord of York and Owen Glendower? is there not besides the Douglas ? have I not all their letters to meet me in arms by the ninth of the next month ? and are they not some of them set forward already? What a pagan rascal is this ! an infidel ! Ha ! you shall see now in very sincerity of fear and cold heart, will he to the king and lay open all our proceedings. O, I could divide myself and go to buffets, for moving such a dish of skim milk with so honourable an action ! Hang him ! let him tell the king : we are prepar'd. I will set for- ward to-night. 34

Enter Lady Percy

How now, Kate ! I must leave you within these two hours. Lady Percy. O, my good lord, why are you thus alone?

16. By the Lord Qq | I protest Ff. 35. Scene VI Pope.

30-31. I could divide . . . buffets: I could cut myself into two parts, and set the parts to cuffing each other.

35. Kate. Shakespeare seems to have had a special liking for the name of Kate. The name of Hotspur's wife was Elizabeth. Holinshed, however, calls her Elinor.

scene in HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 49

For what offence have I this fortnight been

A banish'd woman from my Harry's bed ?

Tell me, sweet lord, what is't that takes from thee

Thy stomach, pleasure and thy golden sleep? 40

Why dost thou bend thine eyes upon the earth,

And start so often when thou sit'st alone?

Why hast thou lost the fresh blood in thy cheeks ;

And given my treasures and my rights of thee

To thick-eyed musing and curs'd melancholy? 45

In thy faint slumbers I by thee have watch'd,

And heard thee murmur tales of iron wars ;

Speak terms of manage to thy bounding steed ;

Cry ' Courage ! to the field ! ' And thou hast talk'd

Of sallies and retires, of trenches, tents, 50

Of palisadoes, frontiers, parapets,

Of basilisks, of cannon, Guhi£rjn^*-^-^5

Of prisoners' ransom and of soldiers slain,

And all the currents of a heady fight.

Thy spirit within thee hath been so at war 55

And thus hath so bestirr'd thee in thy sleep,

That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow,

Like bubbles in a late-disturbed stream ;

And in thy face strange motions have appear'd,

Such as we see when men restrain their breath 60

54. currents Oj | current Ff.

50. retires: retreats. Cf. King John, II, i, 326; Henry V, TV, iii, 86. This meaning was common from 1550 to 1600.

51. frontiers: outworks. Cf. I, iii, 19, and see note.

52. basilisks: pieces of ordnance. So called from the fabulous reptile of that name. — culverin : long cannon. From Italian colubro, 'snake.' Names of reptiles were often given to early cannon.

54. currents: courses. — heady: impetuous.

50 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii

On some great sudden hest. O, what portents are these? Some heavy business hath my lord in hand, And I must know it, else he loves me not. Hotspur. What, ho !

[Enter Servant]

Is Gilliams with the packet gone ?

Servant. He is, my lord, an hour ago. 65

Hotspur. Hath Butler brought those horses from the sheriff ?

Servant. One horse, my lord, he brought even now.

Hotspur. What horse ? a roan, a crop-ear, is it not ?

Servant. It is, my lord.

Hotspur. That roan shall be my throne.

Well, I will back him straight : 0 Esperance ! 70

Bid Butler lead him forth into the park. [Exit Servant]

Lady Percy. But hear you, my lord.

Hotspur. What say'st thou, my lady?

Lady Percy. What is it carries you away ?

Hotspur. Why, my horse, my love, my horse. 75

Lady Percy. Out, you mad-headed ape ! A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen As you are toss'd with. In faith,

61. hest Qx I haste Q2F3 | hast FXF2.

61. hest: behest, command. Cf. The Tempest, I, ii, 274.

68. crop-ear: horse with docked ears. See note, II, i, 5.

70. Esperance. The motto of the Percy family. Cf. V, ii, 70.

77-78. A weasel . . . toss'd with. The ill-temper of the wea- sel was proverbial. Cf. Cymbeline, III, iv, 162. As the spleen was held to be the special seat of all sudden and explosive emotions, whether of mirth or anger, it is aptly assigned as the cause of Hot- spur's waywardness and capricious moodiness.

scene in HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 51

I'll know your business, Harry, that I will.

I fear my brother Mortimer doth stir 80

About his title, and hath sent for you

To line his enterprize : but if you go, —

Hotspur. So far afoot, I shall be weary, love.

Lady Percy. Come, come, you paraquito, answer me Directly unto this question that I ask: 85

In faith, I'll break thy little finger, Harry, And if thou wilt not tell me all things true.

Hotspur. Away, Away, you trifler ! Love ! I love thee not, I care not for thee, Kate : this is no world 90

To play with mammets and to tilt with lips : We must have bloody noses and crack 'd crowns, And pass them current too. God's me, my horse! What say'st thou, Kate? what would'st thou have with me?

Lady Percy. Do you not love me? do you not. indeed ? 95

Well, do not then ; for since you love me not,

82. line: strengthen. Often so. Cf. Macbeth, I, iii, 112-113: "did line the rebel With hidden help and vantage."

84. paraquito: small parrot. Also called 'perroquet' and 'par- rakeet.' The allusion is to its ceaseless chatter.

91. mammets: puppets, dolls. The word is a variant of 'mau- met,' from 'Mahomet,' and means properly 'a false god,' 'idol.' Cf. Romeo and Juliet, III, v, 185-187 :

And then to have a wretched puljng fool, A whining mammet, in her fortunes tender, To answer, ' I'll not wed ; I cannot love, I am too young ; I pray you, pardon me.'

92-93. crowns . . . current. A play between the two senses of 'crowns,' that is, heads and the coins so named. As Johnson said:

52 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii

I will not love myself. Do you not love me ? Nay, tell me if you speak in jest or no.

Hotspur. Come, wilt thou see me ride? And when I am o' horseback, I will swear ioo

I love thee infinitely. But hark you, Kate; I must not have you henceforth question me Whither I go, nor reason whereabout: Whither I must, I must ; and, to conclude, This evening must I leave you, gentle Kate. 105

I know you wise, but yet no farther wise Than Harry Percy's wife : constant you are, But yet a woman : and for secrecy, No lady closer ; for I well believe

Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know; no

And so far will I trust thee, gentle Kate.

Lady Percy. How ! so far ?

Hotspur. Not an inch further. But hark you, Kate : Whither I go, thither shall you go too ; To-day will I set forth, to-morrow you. 115

Will this content you, Kate?

Lady Percy. It must of force. Exeunt

106. farther Qt | further Ff.

"'Crack'd crowns' signifies at once cracked money and a broken head. 'Current' will apply to both: as it refers to money, its sense is well known ; as it is applied to a broken head, it insinuates that a soldier's wounds entitle him to universal respect." Malone pointed out that the same quibble occurs in the First Part of the play Sir John Oldcastle, 1600, IV, i:

I'll none of your crack'd French crowns — King. No crack'd French crowns ! I hope to see more crack'd French crowns ere long.

no. "A woman conceals what she knows not/' — Ray's Proverbs.

scene iv HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 53

Scene IV. [The Boards-Head Tavern, Eastcheap]

Enter the Prince, and Poins

Prince Henry. Ned, prithee, come out of that fat room, and lend me thy hand to laugh a little.

Poins. Where hast been, Hal? 3

Prince Henry. With three or four loggerheads amongst three or four score hogsheads. I have sounded the very base-string of humility. Sirrah, I am sworn brother to a leash of drawers ; and can call them all by their christen names, as Tom, Dick, and Francis. They take it already upon their salvation, that though I be but Prince of Wales, yet I am the king of courtesy ; and tell me flatly I am no proud Jack, like Falstaff, but a

Scene IV | Scene VI I Pope. 8. christen Qj | Ff omit.

7. all Q1 I Ff omit. 9. salvation Qx | confidence Ff.

Scene IV. The Boar's-Head Tavern. This is the place of re- sort of the prince and his boon companions in The Famous Vic- tories of Henry V. The original tavern stood near the Blackfriars Playhouse; it was destroyed in the great fire of 1666, but was re- built on the same site and remained until it was torn down in 1831. Goldsmith in his Essays describes a visit to the house evidently under the impression that it was the earlier tavern. "Shakespeare has blended a verity of history and a daily visible actuality of his own London life into one piece of imperishable enamel-painting, by making the Boar's-Head Tavern in Eastcheap the meeting-place of Prince Hal, Sir John Falstaff, Ned Poins, Bardolph, Pistol, and Hostess Quickly." — Cowden Clarke.

1-2. fat room. It does not well appear what room Poins was in, or why it is called 'fat.' 'Fat' and 'vat' were both used for 'wine-vats.' Probably the word here means 'stuffy,' 'dense with fumes of liquor.' Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, II, vii, 122.

7. leash : trio. Properly a string or thong for leading a dog. It came to signify a 'trio' because three dogs were usually tied together.

54 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii

Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a good boy, by the Lord, so they call me, and when I am king of England, I shall command all the good lads in Eastcheap. They call drinking deep, dyeing scarlet ; and when you breathe in your watering, they cry 'hem! ' and bid you play it off. To conclude, I am so good a proficient in one quarter of an hour, that I can drink with any tinker in his own language during my life. I tell thee, Ned, thou hast lost much honour, that thou wert not with me in this action. But, sweet Ned, — to sweeten which name of Ned, I give thee this pennyworth of sugar, clapp'd even now into my hand by an under-skinker, one that never spake other English in his life than 'Eight shillings and sixpence,' and 'You are welcome,' with this shrill addition, 'Anon, anon, sir ! Score a pint of bastard in the Half-moon,' or so. But, Ned, to drive away the time till Falstaff come, I prithee, do thou stand in some by-room, while I ques- tion my puny drawer to what end he gave me the sugar ; and do thou never leave calling 'Francis,' that his tale

12. Corinthian. This word, like 'Trojan' (II, i, 66), appears to have been a cant term to describe a profligate idler or gay fellow about town. Here, as the words that follow show, it is used as a compliment. The word had reference to the morals of ancient Corinth. Cf. 'Ephesians,' 2 Henry IV, II, ii, 164.

15-16. breathe in your watering : stop and take breath when you are drinking. The figure is from watering horses.

22. Sugar was kept folded up in paper, ready to be delivered to those who called for sack.

23. under-skinker: under-drawer, tapster.

25-26. 'Anon, anon, sir!' See note, II, i, 4. — bastard: a sweet Spanish wine. See note, line 72. — Half-moon. A room in the tavern. So with 'Pomgarnet,' lines 36-37.

29. puny. A play on 'puisne,' the technical term for a younger son and wittily applied here to the under-skinker.

scene iv HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 55

to me may be nothing but 'Anon,' Step aside, and I'll show thee a precedent. **-*~~**]g** 32

Poins. Francis !

Prince Henry. Thou art perfect.

Poins. Francis! Exit Poins

Enter Francis

Francis. Anon, anon, sir. Look down into the Pom- garnet, Ralph. . 37

Prince Henry. Come hither, Francis.

Francis. My lord?

Prince Henry. How long hast thou to serve, Francis?

Francis. Forsooth, five years, and as much as to —

Poins. [Within] Francis! 42

Francis. Anon, anon, sir.

Prince Henry. Five year ! by'r lady, a long lease for the clinking of pewter. But, Francis, darest thou be so valiant as to play the coward with thy indenture and show it a fair pair of heels and run from it? 47

Francis. O Lord, sir, I'll be sworn upon all the books in England, I could find in my heart.

Poins. [Within] Francis! 50

Francis. Anon, sir.

Prince Henry. How old art thou, Francis?

32. precedent Pope | president 36. Scene VI 1 1 Pope. — Enler

Ff I present Qv Francis | Enter Drawer Qx Ff.

32. precedent: something serving as a sample, specimen.

36-37. Pomgarnet: Pomegranate. See note, lines 25-26. 'Pom- garnet' is the spelling in the early Quartos and the Folios and prob- ably was intended to show the drawer's pronunciation.

44. by'r lady: by our Lady. A common oath, referring to Saint Mary the Virgin. Quartos and Folios have 'berlady.'

56 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii

Francis. Let me see — about Michaelmas next I shall be —

Poins. [Within] Francis! 55

Francis Anon, sir. Pray stay a little, my lord.

Prince Henry. Nay, but hark you, Francis : for the sugar thou gavest me, 'twas a pennyworth, wast't not ?

Francis. O Lord, I would it had been two ! 59

Prince Henry. I will give thee for it a thousand pound : ask me when thou wilt, and thou shalt have it.

Poins. [Within] Francis!

Francis. Anon, anon.

Prince Henry. Anon, Francis ? No, Francis ; but to-morrow, Francis ; or Francis, o' Thursday ; or indeed, Francis, when thou wilt. But, Francis ! 66

Francis. My lord?

Prince Henry. Wilt thou rob this leathern jerkin, crystal-button, not-pated, agate-ring, puke-stocking, caddis-garter, smooth-tongue, Spanish-pouch, — 70

Francis. O Lord, sir, who do you mean ?

Prince Henry. Why, then, your brown bastard is your only drink ; for look you, Francis, your white can-

53. Michaelmas: the festival of St. Michael and All Angels.

68-70. Wilt thou . . . Spanish-pouch. The prince refers to Francis's master, to whom he applies these contemptuous epithets. — crystal-button. Vintners wore crystal-buttoned jerkins. — not- pated. Either 'with close-cropped hair,' or 'bull-headed' (cf. 'knotty-pated,' line 228). In Chaucer's Prologue the Yeoman is described as having a 'not-heed.' — puke-stocking: dark-colored stocking. 'Puke' is a color between russet and black. — caddis- garter. 'Caddis' was a kind of worsted lace or ribbon. — Spanish- pouch. Variously interpreted as 'fat-bellied,' or 'wine-bag' (i.e. drunkard), or as referring to the vintner's dress.

72. brown bastard. 'Bastard' wine was either white or brown.

scene iv HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 57

vas doublet will sully : in Barbary, sir, it cannot come to so much. 75

Francis. What, sir? Poins. [Within] Francis!

Prince Henry. Away, you rogue ! dost thou not hear them call ?

Here they both call hint; the drawer stands amazed, not knowing which way to go

Enter Vintner

Vintner. What, standest thou still, and hearest such a calling? Look to the guests within. [Exit Francis] My lord, old Sir John, with half-a-dozen more, are at the door : shall I let them in ? 83

Prince Henry. Let them alone awhile, and then open the door. [Exit Vintner] Poins!

Re-enter Poins

Poins. Anon, anon, sir.

Prince Henry. Sirrah, Falstaff and the rest of the thieves are at the door : shall we be merry ? 88

Poins. As merry as crickets, my lad. But hark ye ; what cunning match have you made with this jest of the drawer? come, what's the issue?

Prince Henry. I am now of all humours that have

74-75. in Barbary ... so much. Making a remark or asking a question utterly irrelevant to the matter in hand is an old trick of humor. In I, ii, 38-39, we had it in the question, "And is not my hostess of the tavern a most sweet wench ? " Here it is used for the purpose of mystifying poor Francis. Ben Jonson calls this kind of humor "a game of vapours."

58 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act n

show'd themselves humours since the old days of good- man Adam to the pupil age of this present twelve o'clock at midnight. 95

[Re-enter Francis]

What's o'clock, Francis?

Francis. Anon, anon, sir. Exit

Prince Henry. That ever this fellow should have fewer words than a parrot, and yet the son of a woman ! His industry is up-stairs and down-stairs ; his eloquence the parcel of a reckoning. I am not yet of Percy's mind, the Hotspur of the north ; he that kills me some six or seven dozen of Scots at a breakfast, washes his hands, and says to his wife ' Fie upon this quiet life ! I want work.' 'O my sweet Harry,' says she, 'how many hast thou killed to-day?' 'Give my roan horse a drench,' says he; and answers 'Some fourteen,' an hour after; 'a trifle, a trifle.' I prithee, call in Falstaff ; I'll play Percy, and that damn'd brawn shall play Dame Mortimer his wife. ' Rivo ! ' says the drunkard. Call in ribs, call in tallow. in

Enter Falstaff, [Gadshill, Bardolph, and Peto ; Francis following with wine]

Poins. Welcome, Jack : where hast thou been ? Falstaff. A plague of all cowards, I say, and a ven- geance too ! marry, and amen ! Give me a cup of sack,

112. Scene IX Pope.

102. me. The ethical dative. See Abbott, § 220.

109. brawn. A reference to Falstaff's plumpness and rotundity.

no. Rivo! An exclamation, apparently of Spanish origin.

scene iv HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 59

boy. Ere I lead this life long, I'll sew nether stocks and mend them and foot them too. A plague of all cowards ! Give me a cup of sack, rogue. Is there no virtue extant ?

He drinks

Prince Henry. Didst thou never see Titan kiss a dish of butter? pitiful-hearted Titan, that melted at the sweet tale of the sun's ! if thou didst, then behold that compound. 121

Falstaff. You rogue, here's lime in this sack too; there is nothing but roguery to be found in villainous man : yet a coward is worse than a cup of sack with lime in it. A villainous coward ! Go thy ways, old Jack ; die when thou wilt, if manhood, good manhood, be not forgot upon the face of the earth, then am I a shotten herring. There live not three good men unhang'd in England ; and one of them is fat and grows old : God help the while ! a bad world, I say. I would I were a weaver; I could sing psalms or any thing. A plague of all cowards, I say still. 132

116. foot . . . too Ql I Ff omit. 131. psalms . . . thing Ql | all

125. in it Qi I Ff omit. manner of songs Ff.

115. nether stocks: short stockings. So in King Lear, II, iv, 11.

118. Titan: the sun-god, the sun. For 'Titan' in the next line Theobald substituted 'butter.' Warburton suggested that 'pitiful- hearted Titan' should be parenthetic, and so 'that' would refer back to the 'butter.'

122. lime . . . sack. Putting lime in sack and other wines ap- pears to have been a common device for making them seem fresh and sparkling, when in truth they were spiritless and stale. Eliot, in his Orthoepia (1593), says: "The vintners of London put in lime, and thence proceed infinite maladies, especially the gouts."

127. shotten: spawned (and therefore lean and worthless).

131. weaver . . . anything. Weavers are mentioned in Twelfth Night, II, iii, 61, as lovers of music. Many of the refugees from

60 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii

Prince Henry. How now, wool-sack ! what mutter you?

Falstaff. A king's son ! If I do not beat thee out of thy kingdom with a dagger of lath, and drive all thy subjects afore thee like a flock of wild-geese, I'll never wear hair on my face more. You Prince of Wales ! 138

Prince Henry. Why, you whoreson round man, what's the matter?

Falstaff. Are not you a coward ? answer me to that : and Poins there?

Poins. 'Zounds, ye fat paunch, and ye call me coward, by the Lord, I'll stab thee. 144

Falstaff. I call thee coward ! I'll see thee damn'd ere I call thee coward : but I would give a thousand pound I could run as fast as thou canst. You are straight enough in the shoulders, you care not who sees your back : call you that backing of your friends ? A plague upon such backing ! give me them that will face me. Give me a cup of sack ; I am a rogue, if I drunk to-day.

Prince Henry. O villain ! thy lips are scarce wip'd since thou drunk'st last. 153

Falstaff. All's one for that. {He drinks) A plague of all cowards, still say I.

Prince Henry. What's the matter?

144. by the Lord Qx | Ff omit.

Flanders who fled from the persecutions of the Duke of Alva were weavers, and, being Calvinists, were distinguished for their love of psalmody.

136. dagger of lath. The kind of weapon given to the Vice in the old miracle plays and moral plays ; hence it came to be a theme of frequent allusion. Cf. Twelfth Night, IV, ii, 134.

scene iv HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 6l

Falstaff. What's the matter! there be four of us here have ta'en a thousand pound this day morning.

Prince Henry. Where is it, Jack ? where is it ?

Falstaff. Where is it ! taken from us it is : a hun- dred upon poor four of us. 161

Prince Henry. What, a hundred, man?

Falstaff. I am a rogue, if I were not at half-sword with a dozen of them two hours together. I have scaped by miracle. I am eight times thrust through the doublet, four through the hose ; my buckler cut through and through ; my sword hack'd like a hand-saw — ecce signum! I never dealt better since I was a man: all would not do. A plague of all cowards! Let them speak: if they speak more or less than truth, they are villains and the sons of darkness. 171

Prince Henry. Speak, sirs; how was it?

Gadshill. We four set upon some dozen —

Falstaff. Sixteen at least, my lord.

Gadshill. And bound them. i75

Peto. No, no, they were not bound.

Falstaff. You rogue, they were bound, every man of them ; or I am a Jew else, an Ebrew Jew.

Gadshill. As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh men set upon us — 180

Falstaff. And unbound the rest, and then come in the other.

Prince Henry. What, fought you with them all ?

163. at half-sword : at half the length of the sword, at close quarters with swords. A term of fencing.

167-168. ecce signum : behold the proof. The expression was used in the ritual of the Church.

62 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii

Falstaff. All ! I know not what you call all ; but if I fought not with fifty of them, I am a bunch of radish : if there were not two or three and fifty upon poor old Jack, then am I no two-legg'd creature. 187

Prince Henry. Pray God you have not murd'red some of them.

Falstaff. Nay, that's past praying for: I have pep- per'd two of them ; two I am sure I have paid, two rogues in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face, call me horse. Thou knowest my old ward ; here I lay, and thus I bore my point. Four rogues in buckram let drive at me — 195

Prince Henry. What, four ? thou saidst but two even now.

Falstaff. Four, Hal ; I told thee four.

Poins. Ay, ay, he said four. 199

Falstaff. These four came all a-front, and mainly thrust at me. I made me no more ado but took all their seven points in my target, thus.

Prince Henry. Seven ? why, there were but four even now.

Falstaff. In buckram? 205

Poins. Ay, four, in buckram suits.

Falstaff. Seven, by these hilts, or I am a villain else.

Prince Henry. Prithee, let him alone ; we shall have more anon.

Falstaff. Dost thou hear me, Hal? 210

194. ward: posture of defense. His usual mode of 'warding' off the adversary's blows. Cf. I, ii, 191.

200. mainly: violently, mightily, with might and main.

207. hilts. For the plural applied to a single sword, cf. Henry V, II, Chorus, 9.

scene iv HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 63

Prince Henry. Ay, and mark thee too, Jack.

Falstaff. Do so, for it is worth the listening to. These nine in buckram that I told thee of —

Prince Henry. So, two more already.

Falstaff. Their points being broken, — 215

Poins. Down fell their hose.

Falstaff. Began to give me ground : but I follow'd me close, came in foot and hand ; and with a thought seven of the eleven I paid. 219

Prince Henry. O monstrous ! eleven buckram men grown out of two !

Falstaff. But, as the devil would have it, three misbegotten knaves in Kendal green came at my back and let drive at me ; for it was so dark, Hal, that thou couldst not see thy hand. 225

Prince Henry. These lies are like their father that begets them ; gross as a mountain, open, palpable. Why, thou clay-brain'd guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson, obscene, greasy tallow-catch, — 229

Falstaff. What, art thou mad ? art thou mad ? is not the truth the truth?

Prince Henry. Why, how couldst thou know these men in Kendal green, when it was so dark thou couldst not see thy hand ? come, tell us your reason : what say'st thou to this? 235

215-216. points . . . hose. Falstaff uses the word 'point' for the 'sharp end of a weapon'; Poins uses it for the 'tagged lace' with which garments were then fastened.

223. Kendal green. The livery of Robin Hood and his men. The color took its name from Kendal, in Westmoreland, formerly celebrated for its cloth manufacture.

229. tallow-catch. Probably a tub of tallow.

64 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii

Poins. Come, your reason, Jack, your reason.

Falstaff. What, upon compulsion ? 'Zounds, and I were at the strappado, or all the racks in the world, I would not tell you on compulsion. Give you a reason on compulsion ! if reasons were as plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I. 241

Prince Henry. I'll be no longer guilty of this sin ; this sanguine coward, this bed-presser, this horse-back- breaker, this huge hill of flesh, — 244

Falstaff. 'Sblood, you starveling, you elf-skin, you dried neat's tongue, you stock-fish ! O for breath to utter what is like thee ! you tailor's-yard, you sheath, you bow- case, you vile standing-tuck, —

Prince Henry. Well, breathe awhile, and then to it again : and when thou hast tir'd thyself in base compari- sons, hear me speak but this. 251

Poins. Mark, Jack.

Prince Henry. We two saw you four set on four and

251. this Qj I thus Ff.

238. strappado. A military punishment of Spanish origin, de- scribed by Randle Holme in his Armoury (1688) as follows: "The person is drawn up to his height, and then suddenly to let him fall half-way with a jerk . . . which punishment is better to be hanged than for a man to undergo."

240. reasons. 'Reason' and 'raisin' were pronounced alike.

245. elf-skin. Hanmer suggested 'eel-skin,' and this reading has been adopted by many editors.

248. standing-tuck. 'Tuck 'was one of the names for a straight, slim sword, or rapier. This and the foregoing terms are applied to the prince in allusion to his slenderness of person. Shakespeare had historical authority for this; as Stowe says of the prince, "He ex- ceeded the mean stature of men, his neck long, body slender and lean, and his bones small."

scene iv HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 65

bound them, and were masters of their wealth. Mark now, how a plain tale shall put you down. Then did we two set on you four ; and, with a word, out-fac'd you from your prize, and have it ; yea, and can show it you here in the house : and, Falstaff, you carried your guts away as nimbly, with as quick dexterity, and roar'd for mercy and still run and roar'd, as ever I heard bull-calf. What a slave art thou, to hack thy sword as thou hast done, and then say it was in fight ! What trick, what device, what starting-hole, canst thou now find out to hide thee from this open and apparent shame? 264

Poins. Come, let's hear, Jack ; what trick hast thou now?

Falstaff. ^By the Lord^ I knew ye as well as he that made ye) Why, hear you, my masters : was it for me to kill the heir-apparent? should I turn upon the true prince ? why, thou knowest I am as valiant as Hercules : but beware instinct ; the lion will not touch the true prince. Instinct is a great matter ; I was now a coward on instinct. I shall think the better of myself and thee during my life; I for a valiant lion, and thou for a true prince. But, by the Lord, lads, I am glad you have the money. Flostess, clap to the doors : watch to-night, pray to-morrow. Gallants, lads, boys, hearts of gold, all the titles of good fellowship come to you ! What, shall we be merry? shall we have a play extempore? 279

Prince Henry. Content ; and the argument shall be thy running away.

Falstaff. Ah, no more of that, Hal, and thou lovest me!

271-272. lion . . . prince. A very popular mediaeval belief.

66 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act II

Enter Hostess

Hostess. O Jesu, my lord the prince ! 284

Prince Henry. How now, my lady the hostess ! what say'st thou to me?

Hostess. Marry, my lord, there is a nobleman of the court at door would speak with you : he says he comes from your father. 2S9

Prince Henry. Give him as much as will make him a royal man, and send him back again to my mother.

Falstaff. What manner of man is he?

Hostess. An old man.

Falstaff. What doth gravity out of his bed at mid- night? Shall I give him his answer? 295

Prince Henry. Prithee, do, Jack.

Falstaff. Faith, and I'll send him packing. Exit

Prince Henry. Now, sirs: by'r lady, you fought fair ; so did you, Peto ; so did you, Bardolph : you are lions too, you ran away upon instinct, you will not touch the true prince ; no, fie ! 301

Bardolph. Faith, I ran when I saw others run.

284. Scene X Pope.

285. my lady the hostess. A sportive rejoinder to her 'my lord the prince.' Cf. Richard 11, V, v, 67.

291. royal man. The hostess has just called the messenger a 'nobleman.' The prince refers to this, and at the same time plays on the words 'royal man.' 'Royal' and 'noble' were names of coin, the one being 105., the other 65. 8d. If, then, the messenger were already a 'noble' man, 35. &,d. would make him a 'royal' man. Hearne relates how "Mr. John Blower, in a sermon before her Majesty, first said, 'My royal queen,' and a little after, 'My noble queen.' Upon which says the queen, 'What, am I ten groats worse than I was ?'"

scene iv HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 67

Prince Henry. Faith, tell me now in earnest, how came Falstaff s sword so hack'd ?

Peto. Why, he hack'd it with his dagger, and said he would swear truth out of England but he would make you believe it was done in fight, and persuaded us to do the like. 308

Bardolph. Yea, and to tickle our noses with spear- grass to make them bleed, and then to beslubber our garments with it and swear it was the blood of true men. I did that I did not this seven year before, I blush 'd to hear his monstrous devices. 313

Prince Henry. O villain, thou stolest a cup of sack eighteen years ago, and wert taken with the manner, and ever since thou hast blush'd extempore. Thou hadst fire and sword on thy side, and yet thou ran'st away : what instinct hadst thou for it?

Bardolph. My lord, do you see these meteors? do you behold these exhalations ? 320

[Pointing to his own face]

Prince Henry. I do.

Bardolph. What think you they portend ?

Prince Henry. Hot livers and cold purses.

Bardolph. Choler, my lord, if rightly taken.

Prince Henry. No, if rightly taken, halter. 325

311. true men. 'True' for 'honest.' Cf. II, i, 89, and see note.

315. with the manner: in the act. A legal phrase.

316. fire. The prince means the fire in Bardolph's face. 320. 'Exhalation' in Shakespeare always means 'meteor.' 323. Hot . . . purses. Hard drinking and poverty. 324-325. Choler . . . halter. A quibble here between 'choler'

and 'collar' and a play on the double meaning of 'rightly taken'; i.e. 'correctly understood' and 'cleverly captured.'

68 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii

Re-enter Falstaff

Here comes lean Jack, here comes bare-bone. How now, my sweet creature of bombast ! How long is't ago, Jack, since thou sawest thine own knee?

Falstaff. My own knee ! when I was about thy years, Hal, I was not an eagle's talon in the waist ; I could have crept into any alderman's thumb-ring : a plague of sigh- ing and grief ! it blows a man up like a bladder. There's villainous news abroad : here was Sir John Bracy from your father ; you must to the court in the morning. That same mad fellow of the north, Percy, and he of Wales, that gave Amamon the bastinado and swore the devil his true liegeman upon the cross of a Welsh hook — what a plague call you him? 338

Poins. 0, Glendower.

Falstaff. Owen, Owen, the same ; and his son-in-law Mortimer, and old Northumberland, and that sprightly Scot of Scots. Douglas, that runs o' horseback up a hill perpendicular, —

Prince Henry. He that rides at high speed and with his pistol kills a sparrow flying. 345

Falstaff. You have hit it.

Prince Henry. So did he never the sparrow.

326. Scene XI Pope.

327. bombast: cotton. Gerard (Herbale, 1507) calls the cotton- plant the 'bombaste' tree. It is here used for 'stuffing of clothes.'

336. Amamon. A demon, described in Scot's Discoverie (1584) as one of the four who rule over all the other fiends.

•337. Welsh hook: a kind of hedging-bill made with a hook at the end, and a long handle like the partisan or halbert.

345. pistol. Johnson points out an anachronism here. Pistol?

scene iv HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 69

Falstaff. Well, that rascal hath good mettle in him; he will not run. 349

Prince Henry. Why, what a rascal art thou then, to praise him so for running !

Falstaff. O' horseback, ye cuckoo ; but afoot he will not budge a foot.

Prince Henry. Yes, Jack, upon instinct. 354

Falstaff. I grant ye, upon instinct. Well, he is there too, and one Mordake, and a thousand blue-caps more : Worcester is stolen away to-night ; thy father's beard is turn'd white with the news : you may buy land now as cheap as stinking mackerel. But tell me, Hal, art not thou horrible afeard? thou being heir-apparent, could the world pick thee out three such enemies again as that fiend Douglas, that spirit Percy, and that devil Glendower ? Art thou not horribly afraid ? doth not thy blood thrill at it? 364

Prince Henry. Not a whit, i' faith ; J lack some of thy instinct.

Falstaff. Well, thou wilt be horribly chid to-morrow when thou comest to thy father : if thou love me, practise an answer.

Prince Henry. Do thou stand for my father, and ex- amine me upon the particulars of my life. 37i

Falstaff. Shall I ? content : this chair shall be my state, this dagger my sceptre, and this cushion my crown.

were not in use in the time of Henry IV. The anachronism is re- peated in Falstaff's speech, V, iii, 50.

356. blue-caps. The 'blue-cap' was of old the national head- dress of Scottish soldiers. The Scotsmen themselves are here ap- propriately called 'blue-caps.'

373. state: chair of state. Cf. Macbeth, III, iv, 5.

70 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii

Prince Henry. Thy state is taken for a join'd-stool, thy golden sceptre for a leaden dagger, and thy precious rich crown for a pitiful bald crown ! 376

Falstaff. Well, and the fire of grace be not quite out of thee, now shalt thou be mov'd. Give me a cup of sack to make my eyes look red, that it may be thought I have wept ; for I must speak in passion, and I will do it in King Cambyses' vein. 381

Prince Henry. Well, here is my leg.

Falstaff. And here is my speech. Stand aside, nobility.

Hostess. O Jesu, this is excellent sport, i' faith ! 385

Falstaff. Weep not, sweet queen ; for trickling tears are vain.

Hostess. O, the father, how he holds his countenance!

Falstaff. For God's sake, lords, convey my tristful queen ; For tears do stop the flood-gates of her eyes.

Hostess, O Jesu, he doth it as like one of these harlotry players as ever I see ! 391

388. tristful Rowe | trustfull QtFf.

W\/*'u><mV 374- join'd-stool: joint-stoo!, a kind of folding-chair.

380. passion: suffering. The original (Latin) meaning. So in

line 410.

l/Wvj/llVMJv^Si. King Cambyses' vein. The banter is here on the play called

A Lamentable Tragedie mixed full of Pleasant Mirthe, containing

, the Life of Cambises, King of Persia, by Thomas Preston, printed

-^ , in 1570 but acted earlier.

« 382. leg: bow of reverence, obeisance. JCfJxtM^ 388. tristful: sorrowful, grieving. Rowe's famous emendation of the 'trustfull' of Quartos and Folios. Cf. Hamlet, III, iv, 50.

391. harlotry. Sometimes used adjectively as a general term of reproach; here probably in the sense of 'vagabond.'

tf

scene iv HENRY THE FOURTH, PART t 71

Falstaff. Peace, good pint-pot ; peace, good tickle- brain. Harry, I do not only marvel where thou spendest thy time, but also how thou art accompanied : for though the camomile, the more it is trodden on the faster it grows, yet youth, the more it is wasted the sooner it wears. That thou art my son, I have partly thy mother's word, partly my own opinion, but chiefly a villainous trick of thine eye and a foolish hanging of thy nether lip, that doth warrant me. If then thou be son to me, here lies the point ; why, being son to me, art thou so pointed at ? Shall the blessed sun of heaven prove a micher and eat blackberries? a question not to be ask'd. Shall the son of England prove a thief and take purses ? a question to be ask'd. There is a thing, Harry, which thou hast often heard of and it is known to many in our land by the name of pitch :/this pitch, as ancient writers do report, doth defile) so doth the company thou keepest: for, Harry, now I do not speak to thee in drink but in tears, not in pleasure but in passion, not in words only, but in woes also : and yet there is a virtuous man whom I have often noted in thy company, but I know not his name.

392-393- tickle-brain. A slang term for some potent kind of liquor. Falstaff here addresses the hostess.

394. From here to the end of the speech is a clever travesty of Euphuism. The passage about the camomile is borrowed from Lyly ; it had already been imitated by Greene in Philomela (1595).

402. micher : truant. Cf. Lyly's Mother Bombie (1594): "How like a micher he stands, as if he had trewanted from honestie." In Akerman's Glossary of Provincial Words and Phrases we find : "Moocher. — A truant; a blackberry moucher. A boy who plays truant to pick blackberries."

407-408. pitch . . . defile. "He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith." — Ecclcsiasticus, xiii, 1.

72 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii

Prince Henry. What manner of man, and it like your majesty? 414

Falstaff. A goodly portly man, i' faith, and a corpu- lent ; of a cheerful look, a pleasing eye and a most noble carriage ; and, as I think, his age some fifty, or, by'r lady, inclining to three score ; and now I remember me, his name is Falstaff : if that man should be lewdly given, he deceiveth me ; for, Harry, I see virtue in his looks. If then the tree may be known by the fruit, as the fruit by the tree, then, peremptorily I speak it, there is virtue in that Falstaff : him keep with, the rest banish. And tell me now, thou naughty varlet, tell me, where hast thou been this month? 425

Prince Henry. Dost thou speak like a king? Do thou stand for me, and I'll play my father.

Falstaff. Depose me? if thou dost it half so gravely, so majestically, both in word and matter, hang me up by the heels for a rabbit-sucker or a poulters hare. 430

Prince Henry. Well, here I am set.

Falstaff. And here I stand : judge, my masters.

Prince Henry. Now, Harry, whence come you?

Falstaff. My noble lord, from Eastcheap.

Prince Henry. The complaints I hear of thee are grievous. 436

Falstaff. 'Sblood, my lord, they are false: nay, I'll tickle ye for a young prince, i' faith.

Prince Henry. Swearest thou, ungracious boy? henceforth ne'er look on me. Thou art violently carried away from grace : there is a devil haunts thee in the like-

437. 'Sblood Qx [ Yfaith F1F2. 438. i'faith Qx | Ff omit.

430. rabbit-sucker: sucking rabbit. — poulter : poulterer.

scene iv HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 73

ness of an old fat man ; a tun of man is thy companion, Why dost thou converse with that trunk of humours, that bolting-hutch of beastliness, that swollen parcel of drop- sies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuff'd cloak-bag of guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with the pudding in his belly, that reverend vice, that grey iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in years ? Wherein is he good, but to taste sack and drink it ? wherein neat and cleanly, but to carve a capon and eat it ? wherein cunning, but in craft ? wherein crafty, but in villainy ? wherein villain- ous, but in all things? wherein worthy, but in nothing?

Falstaff. I would your grace would take me with you : whom means your grace ? 454

Prince Henry. That villainous abominable misleader of youth, Falstaff, that old white-bearded Satan.

Falstaff. My lord, the man I know.

Prince Henry. I know thou dost. 458

444. bolting-hutch: trough or tub into which meal is bolted.

445. bombard: large leather bottle for holding liquor. 446-447. roasted Manningtree ox . . . belly. Manningtree in

Essex was noted for its fine pastures and large oxen, and had the privilege of holding fairs on condition that every year there should be given a certain number of stage-plays. These were associated with great feasting and general festivities, and the roasting of oxen whole was common. These plays retained many of the alle- gorical characters of the old moral plays, including such as are mentioned in the next line, the 'Vice,' 'Iniquity,' 'Ruffian,' and 'Vanity.' Malone quotes in this connection Nash, The Choosing

of Valentines :

or see a play of strange morahtie,

Showen by bachelrie of Manningtree,

Whereto the country franklins flock-meale swarme.

450. cunning: knowing, skillful. Cf. Romeo and Juliet, IV, ii, 2. 453-454. take me with you : let me understand you.

74 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act n

Falstaff. But to say I know more harm in him than in myself, were to say more than I know. That he is old, the more the pity, his white hairs do witness it. If sack and sugar be a fault, God help the wicked ! if to be old and merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know is damned : if to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh's lean kine are to be loved. No, my good lord ; banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Poins : but for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant, being, as he is, old Jack Falstaff, banish not him thy Harry's com- pany, banish not him thy Harry's company: banish plump Jack, and banish all the world. 471

Prince Henry. I do, I will.

[A knocking heard. Exeunt Hostess, Francis,

and Bardolph]

Re-enter Bardolph, running

Bardolph. O, my lord, my lord ! the sheriff with a most monstrous watch is at the door.

Falstaff. Out, ye rogue ! Play out the play : I have much to say in the behalf of that Falstaff. 476

Re-enter the Hostess

Hostess. O Jesu, my lord, my lord !

Prince Henry. Heigh, heigh ! the devil rides upon a fiddlestick : what 's the matter ?

Hostess. The sheriff and all the watch are at the door : they are come to search the house. Shall I let them in? 482

478-479. the devil . . . fiddlestick: here's a fine commotion. The later Quartos and the Folios give this speech to Falstaff.

scene iv HENRY THE FOURTH, TART I 75

Falstaff. Dost thou hear, Hal ? never call a true piece of gold a counterfeit : thou art essentially mad, without seeming so. 485

Prince Henry. And thou a natural coward, without instinct.

Falstaff. I deny your major : if you will deny the sheriff, so ; if not, let him enter : if I become not a cart as well as another man, a plague on my bringing up ! I hope I shall as soon be strangled with a halter as another. 491

Prince Henry. Go, hide thee behind the arras : the rest walk up above. Now, my masters, for a true face and good conscience. 494

484. mad F3F4 | made Q^Fo.

484-485. The probable meaning is : You are essentially, really, truly a madcap, and are not merely putting on the semblance or acting the part of one : it is a matter of character, and not of mere imitation, with you ; and to say you have but assumed the role of a make-sport for the fun and humor of it is like calling a true piece of gold a counterfeit.

488. Falstaff has some knowledge of technical terms in logic, such as the major and minor premises of a syllogism or propo- sition. But he here uses 'major' in the sense of 'proposition,' putting a part for the whole. It would seem that 'major' and 'mayor' were sounded much alike. So Falstaff makes a pun or quibble between 'major,' as a term in logic, and 'mayor,' as the head of a civic corporation, and the sheriff's official superior. So that his meaning is: I deny your statement, what you have just said or affirmed ; if you will deny the sheriff, very well.

489. become . . . cart: do not adorn a hangman's cart.

492. arras : tapestry. From Arras, a town in Artois. Tapestry was fixed on frames of wood at such distance from the wall as to keep it from being rotted by the dampness; large spaces were thus left between the arras and the walls, sufficient to contain even one of Falstaff's bulk. The old dramatists avail themselves of this con- venient hiding-place on all occasions.

76 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii

Falstaff. Both which I have had : but their date is out, and therefore I'll hide me.

Prince Henry. Call in the sheriff.

Exeunt all except the Prince and Peto

Enter Sheriff and the Carrier

Now, master sheriff, what is your will with me?

Sheriff. First, pardon me, my lord. A hue and cry Hath follow'd certain men unto this house. 50c

Prince Henry. What men?

Sheriff. One of them is well known, my gracious lord, A gross fat man.

Carrier. As fat as butter.

Prince Henry. The man, I do assure you, is not here; For I myself at this time have employ'd him. 505

And, sheriff, I will engage my word to thee That I will, by to-morrow dinner-time, Send him to answer thee, or any man, For any thing he shall be charg'd withal : And so let me entreat you leave the house. 510

498. Scene XII Pope.

504-505. Shakespeare has been blamed for putting this false- hood into the prince's mouth. The blame, whatever it be, should rather light on the prince ; and even he is to be blamed rather for what he has all along been doing than for what he now says. To have betrayed Falstaff, after what has passed between them, would have been something worse than telling a falsehood ; more wicked even, let alone the meanness of it. Shakespeare did not mean to represent the prince as altogether unhurt by his connec- tion with Sir John.

scene iv HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 77

Sheriff. I will, my lord. There are two gentlemen Have in this robbery lost three hundred marks.

Prince Henry. It may be so: if he have robb'd these men, He shall be answerable ; and so farewell.

Sheriff. Good night, my noble lord. 515

Prince Henry. I think it is good morrow, is it not ? Sheriff. Indeed, my lord, I think it be two o'clock.

Exeunt [Sheriff and Carrier] Prince Henry. This oily rascal is known as well as Paul's. Go, call him forth.

Peto. Falstaff! — Fast asleep behind the arras, and

snorting like a horse. 521

Prince Henry. Hark, how hard he fetches breath.

Search his pockets. {He searcheth his pockets, and find-

eth certain papers) What hast thou found ?

Peto. Nothing but papers, my lord. 525

Prince Henry. Let's see what they be : read them.

Peto. [Reads] Item, A capon, 2s. 2d.

Item, Sauce, ....... 41I.

Item, Sack, two gallons, ... 5s. 8d. Item, Anchovies and sack, after

supper, 2S. 6d.

Item, Bread, ob.

Prince Henry. O monstrous ! but one half-penny- worth of bread to this intolerable deal of sack ! What there is else, keep close ; we'll read it at more advantage :

519. Paul's: St. Paul's Church or Cathedral. The nave was a place of general resort. Cf . 2 Henry IV, I, ii, 58.

520. Johnson and many editors transfer to Poins this and the following speeches ascribed to Peto in the Quartos and Folios.

532. ob: obolus. A Greek coin, here used for halfpenny.

78 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii

there let him sleep till day. I'll to the court in the morning. We must all to the wars, and thy place shall be honourable. I'll procure this fat rogue a charge of foot ; and I know his death will be a march of twelve- score. The money shall be paid back again with advan- tage. Be with me betimes in the morning ; and so, good morrow, Peto. 542

Peto. Good morrow, good my lord. Exeunt

539-540. his death . . . twelve-score: a march of twelve- score yards will be his death.

ACT III

Scene I. [Bangor. ' The Archdeacon's house]

Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Mortimer, and Glendower

Mortimer. These promises are fair, the parties sure, And our induction full of prosperous hope.

Hotspur. Lord Mortimer, and cousin Glendower, Will you sit down?

And uncle Worcester : a plague upon it ! 5

I have forgot the map.

Glendower. No, here it is.

Sit, cousin Percy ; sit, good cousin Hotspur, For by that name as oft as Lancaster Doth speak of you, his cheek looks pale and with A rising sigh he wisheth you in heaven. 10

Hotspur. And you in hell, as oft as he hears Owen Glendower spoke of.

Glendower. I cannot blame him : at my nativity The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes, Of burning cressets; and at my birth 15

The frame and huge foundation of the earth Shaked like a coward.

2. induction: commencement, beginning. The introductory scene of a play was called the 'induction.' Cf. Richard III, IV, iv, 5.

15. cressets : fire-baskets used as beacons, and sometimes as torches to light processions.

79

80 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi

Hotspur. Why, so it would have done at the same season, if your mother's cat had but kitten'd, though yourself had never been born. 20

Glendower. I say the earth did shake when I was born.

Hotspur. And I say the earth was not of my mind, If you suppose as fearing you it shook.

Glendower. The heavens were all on fire, the earth did tremble.

Hotspur. O, then the earth shook to see the heavens on fire, 25

And not in fear of your nativity. Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth In strange eruptions ; oft the teeming earth Is with a kind of colic pinch'd and vex'd By the imprisoning of unruly wind 30

Within her womb ; which, for enlargement striving, Shakes the old beldam earth and topples down Steeples and moss-grown towers. At your birth Our grandam earth, having this distemperature, In passion shook.

Glendower. Cousin, of many men 35

I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave To tell you once again that at my birth The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes, The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields. 40

These signs have mark'd me extraordinary ; And all the courses of my life do show I am not in the roll of common men. Where is he living, clipp'd in with the sea

34. distemperature: disorder. So in V, i, 3.

scene i HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 8 1

That chides the banks of England, Scotland, Wales, 45 Which calls me pupil, or hath read to me? And bring him out that is but woman's son Can trace me in the tedious ways of art And hold me pace in deep experiments.

Hotspur. I think there's no man speaks better Welsh. I'll to dinner. 51

Mortimer. Peace, cousin Percy ; you will make him mad.

Glendower. I can call spirits from the vasty deep.

Hotspur. Why, so can I, or so can any man ; But will they come when you do call for them? 55

Glendower. Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command The devil.

Hotspur. And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil By telling truth : tell truth and shame the devil. If thou have power to raise him, bring him hither, 60

And I'll be sworn I have power to shame him hence. O, while you live, tell truth and shame the devil !

Mortimer. Come, come, no more of this unprofitable chat.

Glendower. Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made head Against my power ; thrice from the banks cf Wye 65 And sandy-bottom'd Severn have I sent him Bootless home and weather-beaten back.

Hotspur. Home without boots, and in foul weather too ! How scapes he agues, in the devil's name?

64-65. made head Against: attacked in force.

82 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act in

Glendower. Come, here's the map: shall we divide our right 70

According to our threefold order ta'en ?

Mortimer. The archdeacon hath divided it Into three limits very equally: England, from Trent and Severn hitherto, By south and east is to my part assign'd : 75

All westward, Wales beyond the Severn shore, And all the fertile land within that bound, To Owen Glendower : and, dear coz, to you The remnant northward, lying off from Trent. And our indentures tripartite are drawn ; 80

Which being sealed interchangeably, A business that this night may execute, To-morrow, cousin Percy, you and I And my good Lord of Worcester will set forth To meet your father and the Scottish power, 85

As is appointed us, at Shrewsbury. My father Glendower is not ready yet, Nor shall we need his help these fourteen days. Within that space you may have drawn together Your tenants, friends and neighbouring gentlemen. 90

Glendower. A shorter time shall send me to you, lords : And in my conduct shall your ladies come ; Trom whom you now must steal and take no leave,

74. hitherto : up to this point. His finger is on the map.

80. indentures tripartite are drawn : the agreement having three parties to it is drawn up in three corresponding copies. Hol- inshed speaks of the 'tripartite indenture.'

81. sealed interchangeably. Each copy was to be sealed and signed by all three.

scene i HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 83

For there will be a world of water shed

Upon the parting of your wives and you. 95

Hotspur. Methinks my moiety, north from Burton here, In quantity equals not one of yours : See how this river comes me cranking in, And cuts me from the best of all my land A huge half-moon, a monstrous calvtleout. 100

I'll have the current in this place damm'd up ; And here the smug and silver Trent shall run In a new channel, fair and evenly ; It shall not wind with such a deep indent, To rob me of so rich a bottom here. 105

Glendower. Not wind ? it shall, it must ; you see it doth.

Mortimer. Yea, but Mark how he bears his course, and runs me up With like advantage on the other side ;

irig the opposed continent as much no

As on the other side it takes from you.

Worcester. Yea, but a little charge will trench him here

100. cantle Ff | scantle Qx.

96. moiety. Properly a 'half-share,' but often used loosely, as here, to mean a 'share' or 'portion.'

98. comes me cranking in : bends in on my share of the land.

100. cantle: corner, segment. Cf. Afitony and Cleopatra, III, x, 6: "The greater cantle of the world is lost."

105. bottom: intervale, alluvial land along a stream.

no. Gelding: lopping, cutting off from. — continent. Used in a general sense for that which holds in or contains anything; hence the bank of a river. Cf. A Midsummer Night's Dream, II, i, 92.

84 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act in

And on this north side win this cape of land ; And then he runs straight and even.

Hotspur. I'll have it so : a little charge will do it. 115

Glendower. I'll not have it alt'red.

Hotspur. Will not you?

Glendower. No, nor you shall not.

Hotspur. Who shall say me nay ?

Glendower. Why, that will I.

Hotspur. Let me not understand you, then ; speak it in Welsh. 120

Glendower. I can speak English, lord, as well as you; For I was train 'd up in the English court ; Where, being but young, I framed to the harp Many an English ditty lovely well

And gave the tongue a helpful ornament, 125

A virtue that was never seen in you.

Hotspur. Marry, And I am glad of it with all my heart : I had rather be a kitten and cry mew Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers; 130

I had rather hear a brazen canstick turn'd, Or a dry wheel grate on the axle-tree ; And that would set my teeth nothing on edge, Nothing so much as mincing poetry : Tis like the forc'd gait of a shuffling nag. 135

Glendower. Come, you shall have Trent turn'd.

Hotspur. I do not care : I'll give thrice so much land To any well-deserving friend ; But in the way of bargain, mark ye me,

131. canstick. The Quarto reading. A common contraction of 'candlestick,' which is the form of the word found in the Folios.

o

scene i HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 85

I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair. I4o

Are the indentures drawn ? shall we be gone ?

Glendower. The moon shines fair ; you may away by night: I'll haste the writer and wiihal Break with your wives of your departure hence : I am afraid my daughter will run mad, 145

So much she doteth on her Mortimer. Exit

Mortimer. Fie, cousin Percy ! how you cross my father !

Hotspur. I cannot choose:, sometime he angers me With telling me of the moTdwarp and the ant, Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies, 150

And of a dragon and a finless fish, A clip-wing'd griffin and a moulten raven, A couching lion and a ramping cat, And such a deal of skimble-skamble stuff As puts me from my faith. I tell you what; 155

He held me last night at least jiine hours In reckoning up the several devils' names

147. Scene II Pope.

143. writer. The writer of the indentures already mentioned.

144. Break with: broach the subject to, inform.

i4g. moldwarp: mole. 'Mold warp' means literally 'earththrower.'

150. It would be hard to find a better description of much old Cymric verse than that in the lines which immediately follow. Mer- lin (Merrdhin) was the great magician whose "deep science and hell-dreaded might" were much celebrated in the ancient literature of Wales. Some of his wonderful doings, especially his magic mirror, are choicely sung in The Faerie Queene, III, ii.

152. moulten. Past participle of 'moult.' Pope suggested ' moult- ing.' See Abbott, § 374.

154. skimble-skamble stuff : confused, disconnected matter.

86 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act in

That were his lackeys: I cried 'hum/ and 'well, go to,'

But mark'd him not a word. O, he is as tedious

As a tired horse, a railing wife ; r6o

Worse than a smoky house : I had rather live

With cheese and garlic in a windmill, far,

Than feed on cates and have him talk to me

In any summer-house in Christendom.

Mortimer. In faith, he is a worthy gentleman, 165 Exceedingly well read, and profited In strange concealments, valiant as a lion And wondrous affable and as bountiful As mines of India. Shall I tell you, cousin? r He holds_y^ur-Jejn^ej^Jn^Jnghj-espeQt 170

And curbs himself even of his natural scope When you come 'cross his humour?; faith, he does : I warrant you, that man is not alive Might so have tempted him as you have done, Without the taste of danger and reproof: 175

But do not use it oft, let me entreat you. Worcester. In faith, my lord, you are too wilful- blame ; And since your coming hither have done enough

172. come 'cross | come crosse Qx \ doe crosse FjF...

160-161. An old Welsh proverb says: "Three things will drive a man from home — a leaky roof, a smoky chimney, and a scolding wife." Cf. Chaucer, Wife of Bath's Prologue, 278-280.

163. cates: dainties, delicacies. Shakespeare plays on the word in The Taming of the Shrew, II, i, 190 : "For dainties are all Kates."

166-167. Exceedingly . . . concealments: extremely proficient in all the wonderful secret arts.

177. too wilful-blame: wilfully blameworthy. Cf. King John, V, ii, 124: "The Dauphin is too wilful-opposite."

scene i HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 87

To put him quite beside his patience.

You must needs learn, lord, to amend this fault : 180

Though sometimes it show greatness, courage, blood, —

And that's the dearest grace it renders you, —

Yet oftentimes it doth present harsh rage,

Defect of manners, want of government,

Pride, haughtiness, opinion and disdain : 185

The least of which haunting a nobleman

Loseth men's hearts and leaves behind a stain

Upon the beauty of all parts besides,

Beguiling them of commendation.

Hotspur. Well, I am school'd : good manners be your speed ! 190

Here come our wives, and let us take our leave.

Re-enter Glendower with the ladies

Mortimer. This is the deadly spite that angers me ; My wife can speak no English, I no Welsh.

Glendower. My daughter weeps : she will not part with you ; She'll be a soldier too, she'll to the wars. 195

Mortimer. Good father, tell her that she and my aunt Percy Shall follow in your conduct speedily.

Glendower speaks to her in Welsh, and she

answers him in the same

192. Scene III Pope.

196. aunt Percy. It has already been seen that Hotspur's wife was sister to Sir Edmund Mortimer and aunt to the young Earl of March. And she has been spoken of in the play as Mortimer's sister, yet he here calls her his ' aunt.' From which it appears that

88 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE actiii

Glendower. She is desperate here; a peevish self- will 'd harlotry, one that no persuasion can do good upon.

The lady speaks in Welsh

Mortimer. I understand thy looks : that pretty Welsh Which thou pour'st down from these swelling heavens I am too perfect in ; and, but for shame, 202

In such a parley should I answer thee.

The lady speaks again in Welsh I understand thy kisses and thou mine, And that 's a feeling disputation : 205

But I will never be a truant, love, Till I have learn 'd thy language; for thy tongue Makes Welsh as sweet as ditties highly penn'd, Sung by a fair queen in a summer's bower, With ravishing division, to her lute. 210

Glendower. Nay, if you melt, then will she run mad.

The lady speaks again in Welsh

Mortimer. 0, I am ignorance itself in this !

Glendower. She bids you on the wanton rushes lay you down

Shakespeare not only mistook Sir Edmund for the Earl of March, or rather followed an authority who had so mistaken him, but sometimes confounded the two.

198-199. peevish self-will'd harlotry. Used somewhat as a general term of reproach touched with affection without any such sense as is attached to the terms in modern English. Cf. Romeo and Juliet, IV, ii, 14, where Capulet uses it of his daughter: "A peevish self-will'd harlotry it is."

201. swelling heavens : cerulean eyes welling up with emotion.

205. feeling disputation: conversation carried on with feeling.

210. division: variation (in music), melody.

213. wanton rushes. English noblemen, even down to Shake- speare's time, had their floors carpeted with 'rushes'; and it

scene i HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 89

And rest your gentle head upon her lap,

And she will sing the song that pleaseth you 215

And on your eyelids crown the god of sleep,

Charming your blood with pleasing heaviness,

Making such difference 'twixt wake and sleep

As is the difference betwixt day and night

The hour before the heavenly-harness'd team 220

Begins his golden progress in the east.

Mortimer. With all my heart I'll sit and hear her sing: By that time will our book, I think, be drawn.

Glendower. Do so ; And those musicians that shall play to you 225

Hang in the air a thousand leagues from hence, And straight they shall be here : sit, and attend.

Hotspur. Come, Kate, thou art perfect in lying down: come, quick, quick, that I may lay my head in thy lap.

Lady Percy. Go, ye giddy goose. The music plays

Hotspur. Now I perceive the devil understands Welsh ; 231

And 'tis no marvel he is so humorous. By'r lady, he is a good musician.

would seem that even this was thought luxurious enough to be termed 'wanton.'

223. book. It was usual to give this name to any manuscript of bulk, such as patents, grants, articles, and covenants.

232. humorous: capricious, wayward, subject to fits and starts. The word comes to have this meaning from the theory of the old physiologists that four cardinal 'humors' — blood, choler or yel- low bile, phlegm, melancholy or black bile — determine, by their conditions and proportions, a person's physical and mental qual- ities. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, IV, i, 43; As Y on* Like It, I, ii. 278.

90 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act in

Lady Percy. Then should you be nothing but mu- sical, for you are altogether governed by humours. Lie still, ye thief, and hear the lady sing in Welsh. 236

Hotspur. I had rather hear Lady, my brach, howl in Irish.

Lady Percy. Wouldst thou have thy head broken ?

Hotspur. No. 240

Lady Percy. Then be still.

Hotspur. Neither ; 'tis a woman's fault.

Lady Percy. Now God help thee !

Hotspur. To the Welsh lady's bed.

Lady Percy. What's that? 245

Hotspur. Peace ! she sings.

Here the lady sings a Welsh song

Hotspur. Come, Kate, I'll have your song too.

Lady Percy. Not mine, in good sooth. 248

Hotspur. Not yours, in good sooth ! Heart ! you swear like a conuTr^nrnker's wife. 'Not you, in good sooth,' and 'as true as I live,' and 'as God shall mend me,' and 'as sure as day,' 252

239. thou Qj I Ff omit. 247. Kate Qx | Ff omit.

237. brach: "a kind of hound which hunts by scent; in later English use always feminine." — Murray.

242. It is not quite clear what may be the woman's fault in- tended. If the context be taken strictly, it must be an unwilling- ness either to have the head broken or to hold the tongue. Or it may be that a woman will neither talk reason nor be still when others talk it. But probably it is a sort of disguised or ironical compliment; that he cannot be still while he has his wife to talk to, or cannot listen to the singing while she keeps him talking. — Steevens tries to prove that Hotspur's expression was proverbial.

250. comfit-maker's: confectioner's. This expression prepares for the 'protest of pepper-gingerbread' in line 257.

scene i HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 9 1

And givest such sarcenet surety for thy oaths,

As if thou never walk'st further than Finsbury.

Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art, 255

A good mouth-filling oath, and leave 'in sooth,'

And such protest of pepper-gingerbread,

To velvet-guards and Sunday-citizens.

Come, sing.

Lady Percy. I will not sing. 260

Hotspur. 'Tis the next way to turn tailor, or be red- breast teacher. And the indentures be drawn, I'll away within these two hours ; and so, come in when ye will.

Exit

Glendower. Come, come, Lord Mortimer; you are as slow As hot Lord Percy is on fire to go. 265

By this our book is drawn ; we'll but seal, And then to horse immediately.

Mortimer. With all my heart.

Exeunt

253. sarcenet. A soft gauzy silk, originally manufactured by the Saracens. Here it is used in the sense of 'flimsy,' 'feeble.'

254. never, further. With monosyllabic pronunciation. See Abbott, § 466.— Finsbury. Now a part of London, but formerly a region of open walks and fields, a common resort of the citizens for recreation.

258. velvet-guards : trimmings of velvet. The city fashion in Shakespeare's time; here regarded as marks of softness or finical- ness. — Sunday-citizens: people in their holiday finery.

261-262. next: nearest. As in II, i, 9.— turn tailor . . . teacher. Tailors, like weavers, were noted for singing at their work. Percy is jocular in his mode of persuading his wife to sing. The meaning is, to sing is to put yourself on a level with tailors and teachers of music to robins.

266. our book: the indentures then being written.

92 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act in

Scene II. [London. The palace]

Enter the King, Prince of Wales, and others

King Henry. Lords, give us leave ; the Prince of Wales and I Must have some private conference: but be near at hand, For we shall presently have need of you.

Exeunt Lords I know not whether God will have it so, For some displeasing service I have done, 5

That, in his secret doom, out of my blood He'll breed revengement and a scourge for me; But thou dost in thy passages of life Make me believe that thou art only mark'd For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven 10

To punish my mistreadings. Tell me else, Could such inordinate and low desires, Such poor, such bare, such lewd, such mean attempts, Such barren pleasures, rude society, As thou art match'd withal and grafted to, 15

Accompany the greatness of thy blood And hold their level with thy princely heart?

Scene II | Scene IV Pope.

6. blood: offspring. The king is thinking of the wrong he has done to his own kindred, or family blood, in the person of Richard.

11. mistreadings: misdoings, transgressions. The speaker's con- science is ill at ease ; and his sense of guilt in the discrowning of his cousin and the usurping of his seat arms his son's irregularities with the stings of a providential retribution.

13. lewd: wicked, depraved. Often so. — attempts: pursuits.

U^ceneii HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I

93

Prince of Wales. So please your majesty, I would I could Quit all offences with as clear excuse ^~*<j^

As well as I am doubtless I can purge -i^/jO 20

Myself of many I am charg'd withal : 7 —--

Yet such extenuation let me beg, ^^M^

As, in reproof of many tales devis'd, Which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear, By smiling p^-tnamsand base newsmongers, 25

I may, for some things true, wherein my youth Hath faulty wand'red and irregular, Find pardon on my true submission. King Henry. God pardon thee ! yet let me wonder, Harry, At thy affections, which do hold a wing ^ Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors. Thy place in council thou hast rudely lost, Which by thy younger brother is supplied, And art almost an alien to the hearts Of all the court and princes of my blood : 35

The hope and expectation of thy time Is ruin'd, and the soul of every man Prophetically doth forethink thy fall. Had I so lavish of my presence been,

29. God Q: I Heaven Ff. 38. doth Globe | do QxFf.

20. doubtless: certain. Cf. 'careless' meaning 'free from care.' 25. pick-thanks : flatterers. Holinshed uses the word. 32. Shakespeare anticipates an event that took place several years later. Holinshed, having just spoken of the prince's assault on the Chief Justice, adds, "The king after expelled him out of his privie councell, banisht him the court, and made the duke of Clarence, his yoonger brother, president of councell in his steed."

94

THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi

So common-hackney 'd in the eyes of men, 40

So stale and cheap to vulgar company, \Upinion,) that did help me to the crown, Had still kept loyal to possession And left me in reputeless banishment, A fellow of no mark nor likelihood. 45

By being seldom seen, I could not stir But like a comet I was wond'red at ; That men would tell their children 'This is he'; Others would say 'Where, which is Bolingbroke ? ' And then I stole all courtesy from heaven, 50

And dress'd myself in such humility That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts, Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths, Even in the presence of the crowned king. Thus did I keep my person fresh and new; 55

My presence, like a robe pontifical, Ne'er seen but wond'red at : and so my state, Seldom but sumptuous, showed like a feast And won by rareness such solemnity.

59. won F4 I wonne F^Fg wan Qj Camb.

42. Opinion: public sentiment. Shakespeare has it repeatedly in the kindred sense of 'reputation.'

43. possession: the person in possession (of the throne).

50. This innocent passage has drawn forth some odd quirks of explanation. The obvious meaning is, I put all the graciousness and benignity of heaven into my manners and address. Cf. Words- worth's well-known line, "The gentleness of heaven is on the sea."

52-53. I caused men's hearts to beat with allegiance toward my- self, and their mouths to utter shouts and salutations.

59. such solemnity. That is, such solemnity as belongs to a feast. ' Solemnity ' was often used of feasts of state ; much in the sense of 'dignity.' Macbeth invites Banquo to a 'solemn supper.'

scene ii HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 95

The skipping king, he ambled up and down 60

With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits, ^J2e^

Soon kindled and soon burnt ; carded his state', /

Mingled his royalty with cap'ring fools,

Had his great name profaned with their scorns

And gave his countenance, against his name, 65

To laugh at gibing boys and stand the push

Of every beardless vain comparative,

Grew a companion to the common streets,

Enfeoff 'd himself to popularity ;

That, being daily swallow'd by men's eyes, 70

They surfeited with honey and began

To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little

More than a little is by much too much.

So when he had occasion to be seen,

He was but as the cuckoo is in June, 75

63. cap'ring Qx | carping Ff.

61. bavin: brush-wood, small fagots (used for lighting fires). So in Lyly's Mother Bombie (1594): "Bavins will have their flashes, and youth their fancies, the one as soon quenched as the other burnt."

62. carded his state. 'Carded' has been explained in divers ways. The most probable meaning is shown in Bacon's Natural History : "It is an excellent drink for a consumption, to be drunk either alone, or carded with some other beer." Likewise in Greene's Quip for an Upstart Courtier: "You card your beer (if you see your guests begin to get drunk) half small, half strong." So that 'carded his state' probably means the same as 'mingled his royalty.'

67. comparative : one who affected wit, or was a dealer in com- parisons. With 'comparative' cf. I, ii, 82.

69. Gave himself up entirely to the pursuit of popularity.— Enfeoff 'd. 'Enfeoff' is a law term, signifying to give or grant anything to another in fee-simple.

96 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act in

Heard, not regarded ; seen, but with such eyes

As, sick and blunted with community,

Afford no extraordinary gaze,

Such as is bent on sun-like majesty

When it shines seldom in admiring eyes ; 80

But rather drows'd and hung their eyelids down,

Slept in his face and rend 'red such aspect

As cloudy men use to their adversaries,

Being with his presence glutted, gorg'd and full.

And in that very line, Harry, standest thou ; 85

For thou hast lost thy princely privilege

With vile participation : not an eye

But is a-weary of thy common sight,

Save mine, which hath desir'd to see thee more;

Which now doth that I would not have it do, 90

Make blind itself with foolish tenderness.

Prince of Wales. I shall hereafter, my thrice gra- cious lord, Be more myself.

King Henry. For all the world As thou art to this hour was Richard then When I from France set foot at Ravenspurgh, 9S

And even as I was then is Percy now. Now, by my sceptre and my soul to boot, He hath more worthy interest to the state Than thou the shadow of succession ; For of no right, nor colour like to right, 100

77. community : commonness, cheap familiarity. 87. vile participation : low, vulgar companionship. 98. to: in. Cf. The Winter's Tale, IV, ii, 36-37: "He is less frequent to his princely exercises than formerly."

scene ii HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 97

He doth fill fields with harness in the realm,

Turns head against the lion's armed jaws,

And, being no more in debt to years than thou,

Leads ancient lords and reverend bishops on

To bloody battles and to bruising arms. 105

What never-dying honour hath he got

Against renowned Douglas ! whose high deeds,

Whose hot incursions and great name in arms

Holds from all soldiers chief majority

And military title capital no

Through all the kingdoms that acknowledge Christ :

Thrice hath this Hotspur, Mars in swathling clothes,

This infant warrior, in his enterprizes

Discomfited great Douglas, ta'en him once,

Enlarged him and made a friend of him, 115

To fill the mouth of deep defiance up

And shake the peace and safety of our throne.

And what say you to this ? Percy, Northumberland,

The Archbishop's grace of York, Douglas, Mortimer,

Capitulate against us and are up. 120

But wherefore do I tell these news to thee ?

Why, Harry, do I tell thee of my foes,

iio-iii. capital Through . . . Christ: | capitall. Through . . . Christ Q, | Camb I capitall Through... Christ. Q2 Capitall. Through ... Christ, Ff.

101. harness: armor. Cf. Macbeth, V, v, 52: "At least we'll die with harness on our back."

103. Shakespeare with great dramatic propriety approximates the ages of the prince and Hotspur, for the better kindling of a noble emulation between them. Hotspur was some twenty-three years older than Prince Henry. Cf. I, i, 87.

109. majority: superiority, preeminence, priority.

no. capital: chief, principal. Cf. Henry V, V, ii, 96.

120. Capitulate: make articles of agreement.

98 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act in

Which are my near'st and dearest enemy? (^Thou that art like enough, through vassal fear, Base inclination and the start of spleen, 125

To fight against me under Percy's pay, To dog his heels and curtsy at his frowns, To show how much thou art degenerate.J » Prince of Wales. Do not think so ; you shall not ffjJf find it so :

And God forgive them that so much have sway'd 130 '/fcy'^rYour majesty's good thoughts away from me! jpV I will redeem all this on Percy's head And in the closing of some glorious day Be bold to tell you that I am your son ; When I will wear a garment all of blood 135

And stain my favours in a bloody mask, Which, wash'd away, shall scour my shame with it : ^ /^And that shall be the day, whene'er it lights,

^j^7\Tha.t this same child of honour and renown, 1 ?* I This gallant Hotspur, this all-praised knight, 140

l,t ^And your unthought-of Harry chance to meet. pj//+/ For every honour sitting on his helm,

Would they were multitudes, and on my head

My shames redoubled ! for the time will come,

That I shall make this northern youth exchange 145

His glorious deeds for my indignities.

123. dearest. 'Dear' is used by Elizabethan writers to describe a person or a thing that affects deeply either for joy or pain. Mur- ray derives 'dear' in the sense of 'giving pain' from Anglo-Saxon deor, 'hard,' 'grievous,' and 'dear' in the modern sense from Anglo- Saxon deore, 'precious.'

136. favours: features, face. So in Richard II, IV, i, 168; "Yet I will remember the favours of these men."

scene ii HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 99

Percy is but my factor, good my lord, To engross up glorious deeds on my behalf ; And I will call him to so strict account, That he shall render every glory up, 150

Yea, even the slightest worship of his time, Or I will tear the reckoning from his heart. This, in the name of God, I promise here: The which if He be pleas'd I shall perform, I do beseech your majesty may salve ^ 155

The long-grown wounds of my intemperance : If not, the end of life cancels all bands; And I will die a hundred thousand deaths) Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow J1 159

King Henry. A hundred thousand rebels die in this : Thou shalt have charge and sovereign trust herein.

Enter Blunt

How now, good Blunt? thy looks are full of speed.

Blunt. So hath the business that I come to speak of. Lord Mortimer of Scotland hath sent word That Douglas and the English rebels met 165

The eleventh of this month at Shrewsbury :

154. if . . . perform Qx | if I performe, and doe survive Fv

147-148. factor . . . deeds. Capitalists or speculators some- times sent out 'factors,' that is, agents, to buy up and monopolize wool, grain, or other products.

156. intemperance: lack of self-control. The Folios read 'in- temperature.'

157. bands: bonds, obligations. Cf. Richard II, I, i, 2.

164. Lord Mortimer of Scotland. There was no such person. It is George Dunbar, Earl of March in the Scottish peerage, who is meant.

100 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act in

A mighty and a fearful head they are, If promises be kept on every hand, As ever offer'd foul play in a state.

King Henry. The Earl of Westmoreland set forth to-day ; . 170

With him my son, Lord John of Lancaster ; For this advertisement is five days old : On Wednesday next, Harry, you shall set forward ; On Thursday we ourselves will march : our meeting Is Bridgenorth : and, Harry, you shall march 175

Through Gloucestershire ; by which account, Our business valued, some twelve days hence Our general forces at Bridgenorth shall meet. Our hands are full of business : let's away ; Advantage feeds him fat, while men delay. Exeunt 1S0

Scene III. [Eastcheap. The Boar's-Head Tavern]

Enter Falstaff and Bardolph

Falstaff. Bardolph, am I not fallen away vilely since this last action ? do I not bate ? do I not dwindle ? Why, my skin hangs about me like an old lady's loose gown ; I am withered like an old apple-john. Well, I'll repent,

Scene III | Scene V Pope.

172. advertisement : intelligence, information.

177. Our business valued : an estimate being made of the busi- ness we have to do.

4. apple-john. "A kind of apple, said to keep two years, and to be in perfection when shrivelled and withered." — Murray. Thus described in Phillips's Cyder (1708): "John-apple, whose wither'd rind, entrench'd By many a furrow, aptly represents Decrepid age." Cf . 2 Henry IV, II, iv, 4-0 : " The prince once set a dish of apple-

scene in HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I IOI

and that suddenly, while I am in some liking ; I shall be out of heart shortly, and then I shall have no strength to repent. And I have not forgotten what the inside of a church is made of, I am a peppercorn, a brewer's horse : the inside of a church ! Company, villainous company, hath been the spoil of me. 10

Bardolph. Sir John, you are so fretful, you cannot live long.

Falstaff. Why, there is it : come sing me a song ; make me merry. I was as virtuously given as a gentle- man need to be ; virtuous enough ; swore little ; dic'd not above seven times a week ; paid money that I bor- row'd, three or four times ; liv'd well and in good com- pass : and now I live out of all order, out of all compass.

Bardolph. Why, you are so fat, Sir John, that you must needs be out of all compass, out of all reasonable compass, Sir John. 21

Falstaff. Do thou amend thy face, and I'll amend my life: thou art our admiral, thou bearest the lantern

Johns before him, and told him there were five more Sir Johns; and, putting off his hat, said, ' I will now take my leave of these six dry, round, old, wither'd knights.'"

5. liking. The sense of 'liking' is about the same as the phrase 'good keeping.' Thus, in The Book of Common Prayer, Psalm xcii: "Such as are planted in the House of the Lord shall bring forth more fruit in their age, and shall be fat and well-liking." The English Psalter is much older than the version of 1611, which renders the same passage "fat and flourishing."

8. peppercorn . . . horse. "Falstaff compares himself to what he is most unlike, a peppercorn for size, and a brewer's horse for wit."— Clar.

23. admiral: flagship. Of course the admiral's ship went fore- most, and in the night bore a lantern conspicuous in the stern, or poop, that those in the rear might keep in her track.

102 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act in

in the poop, but 'tis in the nose of thee ; thou art the Knight of the Burning Lamp. 25

Bardolph. Why, Sir John, my face does you no harm.

Falstaff. No, I'll be sworn ; I make as good use of it as many a man doth of a Death's-head or a memento mori : I never see thy face but I think upon hell-fire and Dives that liv'd in purple ; for there he is in his robes, burning, burning. If thou wert any way given to virtue, I would swear by thy face ; my oath should be ' By this fire, that's God's angel' : but thou art altogether given over ; and wert indeed, but for the light in thy face, the son of utter darkness. When thou ran'st up Gadshill in the night to catch my horse, if I did not think thou hadst been an ignis fatuus or a ball of wildfire, there's no purchase in money. O, thou art a perpetual triumph, an everlasting bonfire-light ! Thou hast saved me a thousand marks in links and torches, walking with thee in the night betwixt tavern and tavern : but the sack that thou hast drunk me would have bought me lights as good cheap at the dearest chandler's in Europe. I have maintain'd that salamander of yours with fire any time this two and thirty years ; God reward me for it ! 45

33. that 's . . . angel | Ff omit.

25. A humorous reference to the titles assumed by knights-errant. Cf. Beaumont and Fletcher's play, The Knight of the Burning Pestle.

33. fire . . . angel. Cf. Exodus, hi, 2; Hebrews, i, 7.

39-40. Thou hast . . . tavern. 'Candles and lanterns to let' was cried about London. — links: torches of tow and pitch.

43. good cheap: good trade, bargain. Here 'cheap' is used in its original sense of a noun, found in Anglo-Saxon in the form cedp, 'barter' or 'bargain.' See Murray.

scene in HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 103

Bardolph. 'Sblood, I would my face were in your belly !

Falstaff. God-a-mercy ! so should I be sure to be heart-burn'd.

Enter Hostess

How now, Dame Partlet the hen ! have you inquir'd yet who pick'd my pocket ? 51

Hostess. Why, Sir John, what do you think, Sir John? do you think I keep thieves in my house? I have search'd, I have inquir'd, so has my husband, man by man, boy by boy, servant by servant : the tithe of a hair was never lost in my house before. 56

Falstaff. Ye lie, hostess : Bardolph was shav'd and lost many a hair ; and I'll be sworn my pocket was pick'd. Go to, you are a woman, go.

Hostess. Who, I ? no ; I defy thee : God's light, I was never call'd so in mine own house before. 61

Falstaff. Go to, I know you well enough.

Hostess. No, Sir John ; you do not know me, Sir John. I know you, Sir John : you owe me money, Sir John ; and now you pick a quarrel to beguile me of it : I bought you a dozen of shirts to your back. 66

46. 'Sblood Qj I Ff omit. 48. Go'd-a-mercy Q1 \ Ff omit.

50. Dame Partlet. The word 'partlet' used as the proper name of a hen, often 'Dame Partlet' as in the text, came into English literature when Chaucer made 'damoysele Pertelote' the favorite of the "sevene hennes" that accompanied a "cok, highte Chaunte- cleer" in The Nonne Preestes Tale. Shakespeare uses the expression again in The Winter's Tale, II, iii, 75.

55. tithe : tenth part. As in old ecclesiastical language. Quartos nd Folios read 'tight.' Theobald made the correction.

104 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act in

Falstaff. Dowlas, filthy dowlas : I have given them away to bakers' wives, and they have made bolters of them. 69

Hostess. Now, as I am a true woman, holland of eight shillings an ell. You owe money here besides, Sir John, for your diet and by-drinkings, and money lent you, four and twenty pound.

Falstaff. He had his part of it ; let him pay.

Hostess. He? alas, he is poor; he hath nothing. 75

Falstaff. How! poor? look upon his face; what call you rich? let them coin his nose, let them coin his cheeks: I'll not pay a denier. What, will you make a younker of me? shall I not take mine ease in mine inn but I shall have my pocket pick'd? I have lost a seal- ring of my grandfather's worth forty mark. 81

Hostess. O Jesu, I have heard the prince tell him, I know not how oft, that that ring was copper !

82. 0 Jesu I Ff omit.

67. dowlas : a kind of coarse linen. From Daoulas in Brittany.

68. bolters: canvas sieves for meal. Cf. II, iv, 444.

71. eight shillings an ell. Apparently a high price for Holland linen, but Malone quotes the following from Stubbes's Anatomy of Abuses: "In so much as I have heard of shirtes that have cost some ten shillinges, some twentie, some fortie, some five pound, some twentie nobles, and (whiche is horrible to heare) some ten pound a peece; yea the meanest shirte that commonly is worne of any doth cost a crowne or a noble at the least; and yet that is scarsely thought fine enough for the simplest person."

72. by-drinkings : drinkings between meals.

79. younker: novice, dupe. Quartos and Folios read 'younger.' —take . . . inn. So in Heywood's Proverbes, 1562: "To let the world wag, and take mine ease in mine inn." 'Inn' originally meant 'dwelling-place," habitation' (see Murray) , and this is its meaning in the old proverb. Falstaff uses the word in the earlier and later senses.

scene in HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 105

Falstaff. How ! the prince is a Jack, a sneak-cup : 'sblood, an he were here, I would cudgel him like a dog, if he would say so. 86

Enter the Prince and Peto, marching, and Falstaff meets them playing on his truncheon like a fife

How now, lad ! is the wind in that door, i' faith ? must we all march?

Bardolph. Yea, two and two, Newgate fashion.

Hostess. My lord, I pray you, hear me. 90

Prince of Wales. What say'st thou, Mistress Quickly ? How doth thy husband ? I love him well ; he is an honest man.

Hostess. Good my lord, hear me.

Falstaff. Prithee, let her alone, and list to me. 95

Prince of Wales. What say'st thou, Jack ?

Falstaff. The other night I fell asleep here behind the arras and had my pocket pick'd : this house is turn'd bawdy-house ; they pick pockets.

Prince of Wales. What didst thou lose, Jack? 100

Falstaff. Wilt thou believe me, Hal? three or four bonds of forty pound a-piece, and a seal-ring of my grandfather's.

Prince of Wales. A trifle, some eight-penny matter.

Hostess. So I told him, my lord ; and I said I heard

84. Jack. Cf. II, iv, 11, also line 139 below. — sneak-cup: one who sneaks from his cup, coward in drinking.

89. Newgate fashion: in the fashion of Newgate prisoners. New- gate, recently pulled down, was the most celebrated of London pris- ons ; and condemned criminals were wont to be handcuffed together in pairs, or two and two.

106 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act in

your grace say so : and, my lord, he speaks most vilely of you, like a foul-mouth'd man as he is ; and said he would cudgel you. Io8

Prince of Wales. What ! he did not ?

Hostess. There's neither faith, truth, nor womanhood in me else.

Falstaff. There's no more faith in thee than in a stew'd prune ; nor no more truth in thee than in a drawn fox; and for womanhood, Maid Marian may be the deputy's wife of the ward to thee. Go, you thing, go.

Hostess. Say, what thing? what thing? u6

112. in a Qt | a Ff. n5. thing Ql | nothing Ff.

113-114. stew'd prune. "The vapidity and utter lack of any- thing like vigor, virtue or goodness in a stewed prune renders this illustrative parallel self-evident."— Cowden Clarke.— drawn fox. Commonly said to mean a fox drawn or ousted from his cover, when he was supposed to have recourse to all sorts of cunning artifices, to elude his pursuers. Heath's explanation is that the expression refers to "a fox drawn over the ground, to leave a scent, and keep the hounds in exercise while they are not employed in a better chase. It is said to have no truth in it, because it deceives the hounds, who run with the same eagerness as if they were in pursuit of a real fox."— Maid Marian. The companion of Robin Hood, who, in the words of Drayton, "to his mistress dear, his loved Marian, was ever constant known." As this famous couple afterwards became leading characters in the popular morris dances at the Mayday festivities, and Marian's part was generally sus- tained by a man in woman's clothing, the name grew to be prover- bial for a mannish woman.

115. to: compared to, in comparison with. So that the mean- ing seems to be, In respect of womanhood, you are as much be- low Maid Marian as she is below the wife of the deputy of the ward. The mayor, or some other magistrate of the city, had a deputy, or substitute, in each ward. It was an office of consider- able dignity.

scene in HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 107

Falstaff. What thing ! why, a thing to thank God on.

Hostess. I am no thing to thank God on, I would thou shouldst know it ; I am an honest man's wife : and, setting thy knighthood aside, thou art a knave to call me so. 121

Falstaff. Setting thy womanhood aside, thou art a beast to say otherwise.

Hostess. Say, what beast, thou knave, thou ?

Falstaff. What beast! why, an otter. 125

Prince of Wales. An otter, Sir John ! why an otter?

Falstaff. Why, she's neither fish nor flesh; a man knows not where to have her.

Hostess. Thou art an unjust man in saying so : thou or any man knows where to have me, thou knave, thou !

Prince of Wales. Thou say'st true, hostess ; and he slanders thee most grossly. 132

Hostess. So he doth you, my lord ; and said this other day you ought him a thousand pound.

Prince of Wales. Sirrah, do I owe you a thousand pound ? 136

Falstaff. A thousand pound, Hal ! a million : thy love is worth a million : thou owest me thy love.

Hostess. Nay, my lord, he called you Jack, and said he would cudgel you. 140

Falstaff. Did I, Bardolph?

Bardolph. Indeed, Sir John, you said so.

Falstaff. Yea, if he said my ring was copper.

Prince of Wales. I say 'tis copper : darest thou be as good as thy word now? 145

134. ought: owed. This use of 'ought' was archaic in Shake- speare's day and was probably intended as a vulgarism here.

108 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act in

Falstaff. Why, Hal, thou knowest, as thou art but man, I dare: but as thou art prince, I fear thee as I fear the roaring of a lion's whelp.

Prince of Wales. And why not as the lion ? i49

Falstaff. The king himself is to be feared as the lion : dost thou think I'll fear thee as I fear thy father ? nay, and I do, I pray God my girdle break.

Prince of Wales. O, if it should, how would thy guts fall about thy knees! But, sirrah, there's no room for faith, truth, nor honesty in this bosom of thine ; it is all filled up with midriff. Charge an honest woman with picking thy pocket! why, thou whoreson, impudent, emboss'd rascal, if there were anything in thy pocket but tavern-reckonings, and one poor penny-worth of sugar- candy to make thee long-winded, if thy pocket were en- rich'd with any other injuries but these, I am a villain : and yet you will stand to it ; you will not pocket up wrong : art thou not asham'd ? ^3

152. I pray God Q1 | let Ff.

152. girdle break. "Ungirt, unblest" was an old proverb. And in the language of the Old Testament, the ' girdle ' is emblematic of authority, and of the qualities that inspire respect and reverence. Cf. Job, xii, 18: "He looseth the bond of kings, and girdeth their loins with a girdle " ; Isaiah, xi, 5 : " And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins." So that Falstaff's meaning seems to be, May I in my old age cease to be reverenced, if I be guilty of such a misplacement of reverence.

158. emboss'd. Often used of certain sores, such as boils and carbuncles, when grown to a head. In this sense it might aptly refer to Falstaff's rotundity of person. Cf. As You Like It, II, vii, 67.

162-163. pocket up wrong: tamely put up with affronts, instead of resenting them with manly spirit. The prince has a punning ref- erence to the forecited contents of Sir John's pocket.

scene in HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 109

Falstaff. Dost thou hear, Hal? thou know'st in the state of innocency Adam fell ; and what should poor Jack Falstaff do in the days of villainy? thou seest I have more flesh than another man, and therefore more frailty. You confess then, you pick'd my pocket? 168

Prince of Wales. It appears so by the story.

Falstaff. Hostess, I forgive thee : go, make ready breakfast ; love thy husband, look to thy servants, cherish thy guests : thou shalt find me tractable to any honest reason : thou seest I am pacified still. Nay, prithee, be gone. [Exit Hostess] Now, Hal, to the news at court : for the robbery, lad, how is that answer'd? 175

Prince of Wales. O, my sweet beef, I must still be good angel to thee : the money is paid back again.

Falstaff. O, I do not like that paying back ; 'tis a double labour.

Prince of Wales. I am good friends with my father and may do any thing. 181

Falstaff. Rob me the exchequer the first thing thou doest, and do it with unwash'd hands too.

Bardolph. Do, my lord.

Prince of Wales. I have procur'd thee, Jack, a charge of foot. 186

Falstaff. I would it had been of horse. Where shall I find one that can steal well ? O for a fine thief,

170. I forgive thee. A characteristic stroke of humorous impu- dence. Falstaff makes believe that he is the one sinned against.

173. I . . . still : I am always a peacemaker. Hanmer punctu- ated the passage, "I am satisfied. Still ?"

183. with unwash'd hands: immediately. Some editors in- terpret the phrase as 'without retracting or repenting of it,' with allusion to the common expression, 'I wash my hands of it.'

no THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act in

of the age of two and twenty or thereabouts ! I am heinously unprovided. Well, God be thank'd for these rebels, they offend none but the virtuous: I laud them, I praise them. I92

Prince of Wales. Bardolph !

Bardolph. My lord ?

Prince of Wales. Go bear this letter to Lord John of Lancaster, to my brother John; this to my Lord of Westmoreland. [Exit Bardolph] Go, Peto, to horse, to horse ; for thou and I have thirty miles to ride yet ere dinner time. [Exit Peto] Jack, meet me to-morrow in the Temple hall at two o'clock in the afternoon. 200

There shalt thou know thy charge ; and there receive Money and order for their furniture. The land is burning ; Percy stands on high ; And either we or they must lower lie. Exit

Falstaff. Rare words ! brave world ! Hostess, my

breakfast, come ! 205

O, I could wish this tavern were my drum ! Exit

189. the age of | Ff omit

206. drum. This may mean 'headquarters' with an allusion to rallying recruits by the beating of a drum; or an intimation that Sir John prefers the leading of his stomach in the tavern to that of the military ensign, or of the drum, which was wont to be decorated with the colors of the regiment or battalion.

l«

QjJ.

ACT IV,

Scene I. [The rebel camp near Shrewsbury] Enter Hotspur, Worcester, and Douglas

Hotspur. Well said, my noble Scot : if speaking truth In this fine age were not thought flattery, Such attribution should the Douglas have, *«,>

As not a soldier of this season's stamp Should go so general current through the world. 5

By God, I cannot flatter ; I do defy The tongues of soothers ; but a braver place In my heart's love hath no man than yourself : Nay, task me to my word ; approve me, lord.

Douglas. Thou art the king of honour : 10

No man so potent breathes upon the ground But I will beard him.

Hotspur. Do so, and 'tis well.

Enter a Messenger with letters

What letters hast thou there? — I can but thank you. Messenger. These letters come from your father. Hotspur. Letters from him ! why comes he not himself ? 1 5

4. As: that. Often after 'such' or 'so.' See Abbott, § 109.

6. defy: refuse, abjure. Cf. I, iii, 228.

7. soothers: flatterers. So 'soothe' is used for 'flatter.' 9. task: challenge. — approve: make trial of, prove.

it 1

112 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE activ

Messenger. He cannot come, my lord; he is griev- ous sick.

Hotspur. 'Zounds ! how has he the leisure to be sick In such a justling time? Who leads his power? Under whose government come they along?

Messenger. His letters bear his mind, not I, my lord. 20

Worcester. I prithee, tell me, doth he keep his bed ?

Messenger. He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth ; And at the time of my departure thence He was much fear'd by his physicians.

Worcester. I would the state of time had first been whole 25

Ere he by sickness had been visited : His health was never better worth than now.

Hotspur. Sick now! droop now! this sickness doth infect The very life-blood of our enterprise ; Tis catching hither, even to our camp. 3o

He writes me here, that inward sickness — And that his friends by deputation could not So soon be drawn, nor did he think it meet To lay so dangerous and dear a trust On any soul remov'd but on his own. 3 5

Yet doth he give us bold advertisement, That with our small conjunction we should on, To see how fortune is dispos'd to us ;

17. sick Q, I sick now Ff. lord Capell | my mind Qx | his

ao. bear | beares QxFf. — my mind Ff.

24. fear'd: feared for. So in IV, ii, 58, and elsewhere.

scene i HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 113

For, as he writes, there is no quailing now,

Because the king is certainly possess'd 40

Of all our purposes. What say you to it ?

Worcester. Your father's sickness is a maim to us.

Hotspur. A perilous gash, a very limb lopp'd off : And yet, in faith, it is not ; his present want ^ Seems more than we shall find it : were it good r^£~ 45 To set the exact wealth of all our states ^£

All at one cast? to set so rich a main On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour? It were not good ; for therein should we read The very bottom and the soul of hope, 50

The very list, the very utmost bound Of all our fortunes.

Douglas. Faith, and so we should ;

Where now remains a sweet reversion: We may boldly spend upon the hope of what Is to come in : 55

A comfort of retirement lives in this.

Hotspur. A rendezvous, a home to fly unto, If that the devil and mischance look big Upon the maidenhead of our affairs.

Worcester. But yet I would your father had been here. 60

40. possess'd: informed. Often so. Cf. Twelfth Night, II, iii, 149; The Merchant of Venice, I, iii, 65; IV, i, 35, etc.

49-50. therein . . . hope: in doing this we should realize that all our hopes were fixed on a single encounter.

51. list: limit, boundary. Cf. Hamlet, IV, v, 99.

53. Where: whereas. — reversion: a hope in store for us.

56. retirement : something to fall back on.

59. maidenhead : maidenhood, youth, immaturity.

114 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv

The quality and hair of our attempt

Brooks no division : it will be thought

By some, that know not why he is away,

That wisdom, loyalty and mere dislike

Of our proceedings kept the earl from hence: 65

And think how such an apprehension

May turn the tide of fearful faction

And breed a kind of question in our cause;

For well you know we of the offering side

Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement, 70

And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence

The eye of reason may pry in upon us :

This absence of your father's draws a curtain,

That shows the ignorant a kind of fear

Before not dreamt o*f.

Hotspur. You strain too far. 75

I rather of his absence make this use : It lends a lustre and more great opinion, A larger dare to our great enterprise, Than if the earl were here ; for men must think, If we without his help can make a head 80

To push against a kingdom, with his help

61. hair : complexion, character. Cf . Beaumont and Fletcher's Nice Valour: "A lady of my hair cannot want pitying." Similarly in an old play entitled Sir Thomas More: '*A fellow of your haire is very fitt to be a secretaries follower."

69. offering: assailing, challenging. Cf. 2 Henry IV, IV, i, 219.

70. arbitrement: judicial inquiry.

71. loop: loophole. An older word than 'loophole.' 74. fear: object of fear. Cf. I, hi, 87.

77. opinion: fame, reputation. Cf. Ill, ii, 42; V, iv, 48.

78. larger dare: greater boldness.

80. head. See note, I, iii, 284. So in IV, iii, 103 ; V, i, 66, etc.

scene i HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 115

We shall o'erturn it topsy-turvy down.

Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole.

Douglas. As heart can think : there is not such a word Spoke of in Scotland as this term of fear. 85

Enter Sir Richard Vernon

Hotspur. My cousin Vernon ! welcome, by my soul.

Vernon. Pray God my news be worth a welcome, lord. The Earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong, Is marching hitherwards ; with him Prince John.

Hotspur. No harm: what more?

Vernon. And further, I have learn'd,

The king himself in person is set forth, 91

Or hitherwards intended speedily, With strong and mighty preparation.

Hotspur. He shall be welcome too. Where is his son, The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales, 95

And his comrades, that daff'd the world aside, And bid it pass?

Vernon. All furnish'd, all in arms ;

All plum'd like estridges that with the wind

85. term | tearme Qx | dream Ff. 86. Scene II Pope.

95. nimble-footed. Stowe says of the prince, "He was passing swift in running, insomuch that he, with two other of his lords, without hounds, bow, or other engine, would take a wilde bucke, or doe, in a large parke."

96. daff'd: put, thrust. 'Daff' is a variant of 'doff,' 'do off.' 98. estridges. 'Estridge' is the old form of 'ostrich.' The os- trich's plumage might naturally occur to Shakespeare, from its be- ing the cognizance or heraldic bearing of the prince.

Ii6 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv

Bated like eagles having lately bath'd ;

Glittering in golden coats, like images; ioo

As full of spirit as the month of May,

And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer ;

Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.

I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,

His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm'd, 105

Rise from the ground like feathered Mercury,

And vaulted with such ease into his seat,

105. cuisses Pope | cushes QxFf.

99. Bated : flapped and fluttered the wings. The plumes of the prince and his comrades are " first illustrated by the comparison with the ostrich, then the specific trait of fluttering in the wind is il- lustrated by the further comparison to eagles after bathing." — Her- ford. — eagles . . . bath'd. "Eagles were supposed to renew their youth and vigour by plunging in certain springs. In the Bestiare of Philippe de Thaun, the story of the eagles seeking a certain foun- tain in the East, and, when plunged therein three times, having their youth and vigour renewed, is declared to be typical of bap- tism."— Brae. Spenser makes use of the same fable in The Faerie Queene, I, xi, where the hero, overcome and desperately wounded in his long fight with the " old Dragon," at last falls back into " a springing well, full of great vertues, and for med'cine good," and lies there all the night. Una, sorely distressed and dismayed at his fall, watches, to see the issue, till morning, when At last she saw, where he upstarted brave Out of the well, wherein he drenched lay ; As eagle fresh out of the ocean wave, Where he hath left his plumes all hoary gray, And deckt himselfe with feathers youthly gay.

104. beaver. The 'beaver' of the helmet was a movable piece, which lifted up to enable the wearer to drink or to breathe more freely. Of course in time of action it was drawn down over the face.

105. cuisses: armor for the thighs.

107. vaulted. Malone suggested 'vault it,' but the change of construction in the text is^ommon in Shakespeare.

scene i HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 1 1 7

As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds, /-</*> ' To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus tow-V^ And witch the world with noble horsemanship. no

Hotspur. No more, no more : worse than the sun in March, This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come; They come like sacrifices in their trim, l&dH"-*^

And to the fire-eyed maid of smoky war 0 All hot and bleeding will we offer them: 115

The mailed Mars shall on his altar sit Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh And yet not ours. Come, let me taste my horse, Who is to bear me like a thunderbolt 120

Against the bosom of the Prince of Wales : Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse, Meet and ne'er part till one drop down a corse.

0 that Glendower were come !

Vernon. There is more news :

1 learn'd in Worcester, as I rode along, 125 He cannot draw his power this fourteen days.

Douglas. That's the worst tidings that I hear of yet.

Worcester. Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound.

Hotspur. What may the king's whole battle reach unto ?

Vernon. To thirty thousand.

Hotspur. Forty let it be: 130

My father and Glendower being both away, The powers of us may serve so great a day.

119. taste Qx I take Ff. 119. taste : try. Cf. Twelfth Night, 1^ i, 87.

Ii8 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE activ

Come, let us take a muster speedily: Doomsday is near ; die all, die merrily.

Douglas. Talk not of dying: I am out of fear 135 Of death or death's hand for this one-half year. Exeunt

Scene II. [A public road near Coventry] Enter Falstaff and Bardolph

Falstaff. Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry ; fill me a bottle of sack: our soldiers shall march through; we'll to Sutton Co'fil' to-night.

Bardolph. Will you give me money, captain?

Falstaff. Lay out, lay out. J^J^^1 5

Bardolph. This bottle makes an angel!

Falstaff. And if it do, take it for thy labour; and if it make twenty, take them all ; I'll answer the coin- age. Bid my lieutenant Peto meet me at town's end.

Bardolph. I will, captain : farewell. Exit 10

Falstaff. If I be not asham'd of my soldiers, I am a sous'd gurnet. I have misus'd the king's press dam-

Scene II I Scene III Pope.

133. take a muster : ascertain the number of troops assembled.

3. Sutton Co'nT. This is the colloquial pronunciation of Sut- ton Coldfield, a town about 24 miles west of Coventry. Quartos and Folios read ' Sutton-cop-hill.'

6. makes an angel : brings our bill for wine up to an angel. The value of this gold coin was about ten shillings. It was stamped with the figure of the Archangel Michael.

12. gurnet : gurnard, a fish supposed to be so called from the sound it makes when taken from the water. It was probably deemed a vulgar dish when 'soused' or pickled, hence 'sous'd gurnet' was a common term of reproach. — misus'd . . . press : misused the king's commission for irnnressing men into the military service.

lmor

scene ii HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 119

nably. I have got, in exchange of a hundred and fifty soldiers, three hundred and odd pounds. I press me none but good householders, yeomen's sons ; inquire me out contracted bachelors, such as had been ask'd twice on the banns ; such a commodity of warm slaves, as had as lieve hear the devil as a drum ; such as fear the report of a caliver worse than a struck fowl or a hurt wild-duck. I press'd me none but such toasf^ana^^X' butter, with hearts in their bellies no bigger than pins' heads, and they have bought out their services ; and now my whole charge consists of ancients, corporals, lieuten- ants, gentlemen of companies, slaves as ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth, where the glutton's dogs lick'd his sores ; and such as indeed were never soldiers, but dis- carded unjust serving-men, younger sons to younger brothers, revolted tapsters and ostlers trade-fallen, the

16-17. ask'd . . . banns. The law required that parties intend- ing marriage should have the banns ' asked,' i.e. publicly proclaimed, three times, in as many weeks, before the ceremony could take place. So that when the banns had been asked twice, the marriage day was pretty near. — warm: comfortably off, well-to-do.

20-21. toasts-and-butter: cockneys. Cf. Moryson's Itinerary (161 7) : "Londoners, and all within the sound of Bow bell, are in reproach called cockneys, and eaters of buttered toasts." So in Beaumont and Fletcher's Wit without Money, V, ii: "They love young toasts and butter, Bow-bell suckers."

23. ancients: ensigns. So Pistol is called 'ancient' in Henry V.

25. painted cloth : tapestry. It was customary to have short sentences inscribed on the tapestry, and certain incidents of Scrip- ture depicted, so as to combine ornament and instruction.

27-28. younger . . . brothers. "Raleigh in his Discourse on War uses this very expression for men of desperate fortune and wild adventure." — Johnson. — revolted tapsters: tapsters who have run away from their masters.

120 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv

cankers of a calm world and a long peace, ten times more dishonourable ragged than an old fac'd ancient: and such have I, to fill up the rooms of them that have bought out their services, that you would think that I had a hundred and fifty tatter'd prodigals lately come from swine-keeping, from eating draff and husks. A mad fellow met me on the way and told me I had unloaded all the gibbets and press'd the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I'll not march through Coventry with them, that 's flat : nay, and the villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had gyves on ; for indeed I had the most of them out of prison. There 's but a shirt and a half in all my company ; and the half shirt is two napkins tack'd together and thrown over the shoulders like a herald's coat without sleeves ; and the shirt, to say the truth, stolen from my host at Saint Alban's, or the red-nose innkeeper of Daventry. But that's all one; they'll find linen enough on every hedge. 46

Enter the Prince and Westmoreland

Prince of Wales. How now, blown Jack ! how now, quilt !

41. but Rowe I not Qx¥i.

29. cankers . . . peace. Nash, in his Pierce Penniless (1592), has a similar expression: "All the canker-worms that breed in the rust of peace."

30. fac'd ancient: patched standard. The First Quarto reads 'olde fazd'; the Folios have 'old-fac'd.' 'Ancient' was used both for 'standard-bearer' (line 23) and 'standard' (as here).

47-48. blown . . . quilt. Both words have reference to Fal- staff's plumpness. The one supposes him to be plump with wind; the other, with cotton.

scene ii HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 12 1

Falstaff. What, Hal ! how now, mad wag ! what a devil dost thou in Warwickshire? My good Lord of Westmoreland, I cry you mercy : I thought your honour had already been at Shrewsbury. 52

Westmoreland. Faith, Sir John, 'tis more than time that I were there, and you too ; but my powers are there already. The king, I can tell you, looks for us all : we must away all night.

Falstaff. Tut, never fear me : I am as vigilant as a cat to steal cream. 58

Prince of Wales. I think, to steal cream indeed, for thy theft hath already made thee butter. But tell me, Jack, whose fellows are these that come after?

Falstaff. Mine, Hal, mine.

Prince of Wales. I did never see such pitiful rascals. 64

Falstaff. Tut, tut ; good enough to toss ; food for powder, food for powder ; they'll fill a pit as well as better : tush, man, mortal men, mortal men.

Westmoreland. Ay, but, Sir John, methinks they are exceeding poor and bare, too beggarly. 69

Falstaff. Faith, for their poverty, I know not where they had that; and for their bareness, I am sure they never learn' J that of me.

Prince of Wales. No, I'll be sworn ; unless you call three fingers on the ribs bare. But, sirrah, make haste: Percy is already in the field. 75

56. all night Q | all to night Ff.

51. cry you mercy: ask your pardon. Falstaff is pretending not to have recognized his lordship at first, and so makes an apology. 65. to toss: to be impaled on the pikes of the enemy.

122 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE activ

Falstaff. What, is the king encamp'd?

Westmoreland. He is, Sir John : I fear we shall stay- too long.

Falstaff. Well, To the latter end of a fray and the beginning of a feast Fits a dull fighter and a keen guest. Exeunt 80

Scene III. [The rebel camp near Shrewsbury] Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Douglas, and Vernon

Hotspur. We'll fight with him to-night.

Worcester. It may not be.

Douglas. You give him then advantage.

Vernon. Not a whit.

Hotspur. Why say you so ? looks he not for supply ?

Vernon. So do we.

Hotspur. His is certain, ours is doubtful.

Worcester. Good cousin, be advis'd ; stir not to- night. 5

Vernon. Do not, my lord.

Douglas. You do not counsel well :

You speak it out of fear and cold heart.

Vernon. Do me no slander, Douglas : by my life, And I dare well maintain it with my life, If well-respected honour bid me on, 10

I hold as little counsel with weak fear As you, my lord, or any Scot that this day lives : Let it be seen to-morrow in the battle Which of us fears.

Scene III | Scene IV Pope. 10. well- respected: ruled by reasonable considerations.

scene in HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 123

Douglas. Yea, or to-night.

Vernon. Content.

Hotspur. To-night, say I. 15

Vernon. Come, come, it may not be. I wonder much, Being men of such great leading as you are, That you foresee not what impediments Drag back our expedition : certain horse Of my cousin Vernon's are not yet come up : 20

Your uncle Worcester's horse came but to-day ; And now their pride and mettle is asleep, Their courage with hard labour tame and dull, That not a horse is half the half of himself.

Hotspur. So are the horses of the enemy 25

In general, journey-bated and brought low : The better part of ours are full of rest.

Worcester. The number of the king exceedeth ours : For God's sake, cousin, stay till all come in.

The trumpet sounds a parley

Enter Sir Walter Blunt

Blunt. I come with gracious offers from the king, 30 If you vouchsafe me hearing and respect.

Hotspur. Welcome, Sir Walter Blunt ; and would to God You were of our determination ! Some of us love you well ; and even those some Envy your great deservings and good name, 35

30. Scene V Pope.

19. expedition: ability to make a rapid advance.

26. journey-bated: weakened, exhausted by travel.

27. full of rest: thoroughly rested. Cf. Julius Coesar, IV, iii, 202.

124 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE activ

Because you are not of our quality, But stand against us like an enemy.

Blunt. And God defend but still I should stand so, So long as out of limit and true rule You stand against anointed majesty. 40

But to my charge. The king hath sent to know The nature of your griefs, and whereupon You conjure from the breast of civil peace Such bold hostility, teaching his duteous land Audacious cruelty. If that the king 45

Have any way your good deserts forgot, Which he confesseth to be manifold, He bids you name your griefs ; and with all speed You shall have your desires with interest And pardon absolute for yourself and these 50

Herein misled by your suggestion.

Hotspur. The king is kind ; and well we know the king Knows at what time to promise, when to pay. My father and my uncle and myself Did give him that same royalty he wears ; 55

And when he was not six and twenty strong, Sick in the world's regard, wretched and low, A poor unminded outlaw sneaking home, My father gave him welcome to the shore ; And when he heard him swear and vow to God 60

He came but to be Duke of Lancaster,

36. quality: fellowship, party. A very rare use of the word. 48. griefs: grievances. The effect for the cause. 51. suggestion: temptation, instigation to evil. Cf. The Tem- pest, II, i, 288.

scene in HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 125

To sue his livery and beg his peace,

With tears of innocency and terms of zeal,

My father, in kind heart and pity mov'd,

Swore him assistance and performed it too. 65

Now when the lords and barons of the realm

Perceived Northumberland did lean to him,

The more and less came in with cap and knee ;

Met him in boroughs, cities, villages,

Attended him on bridges, stood in lanes, 70

Laid gifts before him, proffer'd him their oaths,

Gave him their heirs, as pages follow'd him

Even at the heels in golden multitudes.

He presently, as greatness knows itself,

Steps me a little higher than his vow 75

Made to my father, while his blood was poor,

Upon the naked shore at Ravenspurgh ;

And now, forsooth, takes on him to reform

Some certain edicts and some strait decrees

That lie too heavy on the commonwealth, 80

62. sue . . . peace. 'Sue one's livery' and "beg one's peace' are old law terms, here used with strict propriety. On the death of a person who held by the tenure of knight's service, his heir, if under age, became a ward of the king's; but, if of age, he had a right to sue out a writ of ouster le main, that the king's hand might be taken off, and the land delivered to him. At the same time he offered his homage, that being the condition of his tenure; which was to beg the peaceable enjoyment of his lands. When Boling- broke was in exile, his father having died, the king denied him this right, and seized the lands to his own use. See Richard II, II, i, 203.

68. more and less: great and small, men of all ranks. — with cap and knee. Cf. "cap and knee slaves," Timon of Athens, III, vi, 107.

74. knows itself: becomes conscious of its power.

126 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE activ

Cries out upon abuses, seems to weep

Over his country's wrongs ; and by this face,

This seeming brow of justice, did he win

The hearts of all that he did angle for ;

Proceeded further ; cut me off the heads 85

Of all the favourites that the absent king

In deputation left behind him here,

When he was personal in the Irish war.

Blunt. Tut, I came not to hear this.

Hotspur. Then to the point.

In short time after, he depos'd the king ; 9o

Soon after that, depriv'd him of his life ; And in the neck of that, task'd the whole state ; To make that worse, suffer'd his kinsman March, Who is, if every owner were well plac'd, Indeed his king, to be engag'd in Wales, 95

There without ransom to lie forfeited ; Disgrac'd me in my happy victories, Sought to entrap me by intelligence ; Rated mine uncle from the council-board ; In rage dismiss'd my father from the court ; 100

Broke oath on oath, committed wrong on wrong,

94. well Qx I Ff omit.

88. personal: commanding in person, personally engaged.

92. in the neck of: following immediately on. The metaphor is from the race course. Cf. Sonnets, cxxxi, 11 : "A thousand groans ... On one another's neck do witness bear."— task'd: taxed. This is the original meaning of the word. 'Task' and 'tax' were often used interchangeably. Etymologically they are identical.

95. engag'd : pledged as a hostage. So in V, ii, 44: "And West- moreland, that was engag'd, did bear it." Cf. 'gage,' I, iii, 173, and see note.

scene iv HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 127

And in conclusion drove us to seek out

This head of safety ; and withal to pry

Into his title, the which we find

Too indirect for long continuance. 105

Blunt. Shall I return th's answer to the king?

Hotspur. Not so, Sir Walter : we'll withdraw awhile. Go to the king ; and let there be impawn'd Some surety for a safe return again, And in the morning early shall my uncle no

Bring him our purposes : and so farewell.

Blunt. I would you would accept of grace and love.

Hotspur. And may be so we shall.

Blunt. Pray God you do.

Exeunt

Scene IV. [York. The Archbishop's palace]

Enter the Archbishop of York and Sir Michael

Archbishop. Hie, good Sir Michael ; bear this sealed brief With winged haste to the lord marshal ; This to my cousin Scroop, and all the rest To whom they are directed. If you knew How much they do import, you would make haste. ;

Scene IV | Scene VI Pope.

103. head of safety: armed force for protection. Cf. I, iii, 284; IV, i, 80 ; IV, iv, 25 ; V, i, 66.

1. Sir Michael. Probably the Archbishop's chaplain, 'sir' being a courtesy title given to churchmen. — brief: short writing, letter, dispatch.

2. lord marshal. Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk.

128 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE activ

Sir Michael. My good lord, I guess their tenour.

Archbishop. Like enough you do.

To-morrow, good Sir Michael, is a day Wherein the fortune of ten thousand men Must bide the touch ; for, sir, at Shrewsbury, 10

As I am truly given to understand, The king with mighty and quick-raised power Meets with Lord Harry : and, I fear, Sir Michael, What with the sickness of Northumberland, Whose power was in the first proportion, 15

And what with Owen Glendower's absence thence, Who with them was a rated sinew too And comes not in, o'er-rul'd by prophecies, I fear the power of Percy is too weak To wage an instant trial with the king. 20

Sir Michael. Why, my good lord, you need not fear ; There is Douglas and Lord Mortimer.

Archbishop. No, Mortimer is not there.

Sir Michael. But there is Mordake, Vernon, Lord Harry Percy, And there is my Lord of Worcester and a head 25

Of gallant warriors, noble gentlemen.

Archbishop. And so there is : but yet the king hath drawn The special head of all the land together : The Prince of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster, The noble Westmoreland and warlike Blunt ; 30

17. sinew Qt | firmely Ff.

10. touch: touchstone (i.e. test, trial, proof).

17. rated sinew : strength on which they reckoned.

scene iv HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 129

And many moe corrivals and dear men Of estimation and command in arms.

Sir Michael. Doubt not, my lord, they shall be well oppos'd. Archbishop. I hope no less, yet needful 'tis to fear ; And, to prevent the worst, Sir Michael, speed : 35

For if Lord Percy thrive not, ere the king Dismiss his power, he means to visit us, For he hath heard of our confederacy, And 'tis but wisdom to make strong against him : Therefore make haste. I must go write again 40

To other friends; and so farewell, Sir Michael. Exeunt

33. they Qt I he Ff.

31. moe: more. The old comparative of 'many.' In Middle Eng- lish 'moe,' or 'mo,' was used of number and with collective nouns; 'more' had reference specifically to size.

cf

ACT V

Scene I. [The King's camp near Shrewsbury']

Enter the King, Prince of Wales, Lord John of Lan- caster, Sir Walter Blunt, and Falstaff

King Henry., How bloodily the sun begins to peer Above yon blJsKy mil'! the day looks pale At his distemperature.

Prince of Wales. The southern wind

Doth play the trumpet to his purposes, And by his hollow whistling in the leaves 5

Foretells a tempest and a blustering day.

King Henry. Then with the losers let it sympathise, . j^ For nothing can seem foul to those that win; */] L/Jtrr The trumpet sounds

Enter Worcester [and Vernon]

How now, my Lord of Worcester ! 'tis not well

That you and I should meet upon such terms 10

As now we meet. You have deceiv'd our trust,

And made us doff our easy robes of peace,

2. busky Ff | bulky Qv

Enter ... In the stage direction of the Quartos and Folios the Earl of Westmoreland is included, but he does not speak, and from V, ii, 29 (cf. IV, iii, 108-109) it is evident that he was at the rebel camp detained as a hostage for the safe return of Worcester.

2. busky : wooded, bosky. Cf. The Tempest, IV, i, 81.

I3°

scene i HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 13 1

To crush our old limbs in ungentle steel :

This is not well, my lord, this is not well.

What say you to it? will you again unknit 15

This churlish knot of all-abhorred war ?

And move in that obedient orb again

Where you did give a fair and natural light,

And be no more an exhal'd meteor,

A prodigy of fear and a portent 20

Of broached mischief to the unborn times ?

Worcester. Hear me, my liege : For mine own part, I could be well content To entertain the lag-end of my life With quiet hours ; for I do protest, 25

I have not sought the day of this dislike.

King Henry. You have not sought it ! how comes it, then?

Falstaff. Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it.

Prince of Wales. Peace, chewet, peace !

Worcester. It pleas'd your majesty to turn your looks Of favour from myself and all our house ; 31

And yet I must remember you, my lord,

25. do Ff I Qj omits.

13. our old limbs. The king was at this time but thirty-seven years old. But in his development of historical characters Shake- speare's chief interest was to bring the substance of historic truth within the conditions of dramatic effect.

17. obedient orb: orbit (or path) of obedience. Cf. V, iv, 65.

29. chewet: chough (i.e. chatterer, prater). The word is found in Cotgrave: "chouette, a chough, cadesse, daw, jackdaw." The word also meant a "dish made of various kinds of meat or fish, chopped fine, and mixed with spices and fruits." — Murray. Bacon, in Sylva, has "chuetts, which are likewise minced meat."

132 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE actv

We were the first and dearest of your friends.

For you my staff of office did I break

In Richard's time ; and posted day and night 35

To meet you on the way, and kiss your hand,

When yet you were in place and in account

Nothing so strong and fortunate as I.

It was myself, my brother and his son,

That brought you home and boldly did outdare 40

The dangers of the time. You swore to us,

And you did swear that oath at Doncaster,

That you did nothing purpose 'gainst the state ;

Nor claim no further than your new-fall 'n right,

The seat of Gaunt, dukedom of Lancaster : 45

To this we swore our aid. But in short space

It rain'd down fortune showering on your head ;

And such a flood of greatness fell on you,

What with our help, what with the absent king,

What with the injuries of a wanton time, 50

The seeming sufferances that you had borne,

And the contrarious winds that held the king

So long in his unlucky Irish wars

That all in England did repute him dead :

And from this swarm of fair advantages 55

You took occasion to be quickly woo'd

To gripe the general sway into your hand ;

Forgot your oath to us at Doncaster;

58. Forgot . . . Doncaster. "At his comming unto Doncaster, the earle of Northumberland, and his sonne sir Henry Persie, war- dens of the marches against Scotland, with the earle of Westmer- land, came unto him, where he sware unto those lords, that he would demand no more than the lands that were to him descended by inheritance from his father, and in right of his wife." — Holinshed.

scene i HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 133

And being fed by us y?V/1^usyso

As that ungentle g^uv'u^e&jckoo's bird, 60

Useth the sparrow ; did oppress our nest ;

Grew by our feeding to so great a bulk

That even our love durst not come near your sight

For fear of swallowing ; but with nimble wing

We were enforc'd, for safety sake, to fly 65

Out of your sight and raise this present head ;

Whereby we stand opposed by such means

As you yourself have forg'd against yourself

By unkind usage, dangerous countenance,

And violation of all faith and troth 70

Sworn to us in your younger enterprise.

King Henry. These things indeed you have articulate, Proclaim'd at market-crosses, read in churches, To face the garment of rebellion With some fine colour that may please the eye 75

72. articulate Qx | articulated Ff.

60. gull: unfledged bird. Cf. Timon of Athens, II, i, 31-32 : "a naked gull, Which flashes now a phoenix." In Elizabethan slang, a 'gull' was a fool or a dupe, as in the title of Dekker's work, The Gull's Hornbook. — cuckoo's bird: young cuckoo. Shakespeare has many references to the extraordinary habits of the cuckoo in usurp- ing the nests of other birds, especially that of the hedge-sparrow, and leaving her egg to be hatched there by the foster-bird. In Holland's translation of Pliny's Natural History, first published in 1 601, is a remarkable account of these habits of the cuckoo min- gled with not a few folk-stories on the subject, but the birds whose nests are usurped are given there as the stock-dove and the 'titling.' Shakespeare seems to be the first writer to refer to the usurpation of the hedge-sparrow's nest, and this we owe not improbably to his own personal observation.

67. we stand opposed : we stand in opposition to you.

72. articulate: set down in articles. See Abbott, §342.

134 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v

Of fickle changelings and poor discontents,

Which gape and rub the elbow at the news

Of hurlyburly innovation :

And never yet did insurrection want

Such water-colours to impaint his cause ; 80

Nor moody beggars, starving for a time

Of pellmell havoc and confusion.

Prince of Wales. In both your armies there is many a soul Shall pay full dearly for this encounter, If once they join in trial. Tell your nephew, 85

The Prince of Wales doth join with all the world In praise of Henry Percy : by my hopes, This present enterprise set off his head, I do not think a braver gentleman, More active-valiant or more valiant-young, 90

More daring or more bold, is now alive To grace this latter age with noble deeds. For my part, I may speak it to my shame, I have a truant been to chivalry ;

And so I hear he doth account me too ; 95

Yet this before my father's majesty — I am content that he shall take the odds Of his great name and estimation, And will, to save the blood on either side. Try fortune with him in a single fight. 100

83. your Ox I our Ff. 88. off Ff | of Qx.

76. discontents: discontented persons.

77. rub the elbow. A way of expressing satisfaction. So in Love's Labour's Lost, V, ii, 109.

80. water-colours. Faint, specious, and transitory. 88. His present rebellion being struck from his record.

scene i HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 135

King Henry. And, Prince of Wales, so dare we ven- ture thee, Albeit considerations infinite Do make against it. No, good Worcester, no, We love our people well ; even those we love That are misled upon your cousin's part ; 105

And, will they take the offer of our grace, Both he and they and you, yea, every man Shall be my friend again and I'll be his : So tell your cousin, and bring me word What he will do: but if he will not yield, no

Rebuke and dread correction wait on us And they shall do their office. So, be gone ; We will not now be troubled with reply : We offer fair; take it advisedly.

Exeunt Worcester [and Vernon]

Prince of Wales. It will not be accepted, on my life : The Douglas and the Hotspur both together 116

Are confident against the world in arms.

King Henry. Hence, therefore, every leader to his charge ; For, on their answer, will we set on them : And God befriend us, as our cause is just ! 1 20

Exeunt all but the Prince of Wales and Falstaff

Falstaff. Hal, if thou see me down in the battle and bestride me, so ; 'tis a point of friendship.

121. Scene II Pope.

122. bestride me: defend me by standing over me. In the battle of Agincourt, Prince Henry, then king, did this act of friendship for his brother, the Duke of Gloucester. Cf. Comedy of Errors, V, i, 192: "When I bestrid thee in the wars, and took Deep scars, to save thy life."

136 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v

Prince of Wales. Nothing but a colossus can do thee that friendship. Say thy prayers, and farewell. 124

Falstapf. I would 'twere bed-time, Hal, and all well.

Prince of Wales. Why, thou owest God a death.

Exit

Falstaff. Tis not due yet ; I would be loath to pay him before his day. What need I be so forward with him that calls not on me? Well, 'tis no matter; honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on ? how then ? Can honour set to a leg ? no : or an arm ? no : or take away the grief of a wound ? no. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then ? no. What is honour? a word. What is in that word honour? what is that honour ? air. A trim reckoning ! Who hath it ? he that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it ? no. Doth he hear it? no. 'Tis insensible, then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living ? no. Why ? de- traction will not suffer it. Therefore I'll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon : and so ends my catechism.

Exit

Scene II. [The rebel camp]

Enter Worcester and Vernon

Worcester. O, no, my nephew must not know, Sir Richard, The liberal and kind offer of the king. Vernon. 'Twere best he did. Worcester. Then are we all undone.

Scene II | Scene III Pope. 3. undone Ff | under one Q1#

140. scutcheon: heraldic emblazonry, that can do nothing.

scene ii HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 137

It is not possible, it cannot be,

The king should keep his word in loving us ; 5

He will suspect us still and find a time

To punish this offence in other faults :

Suspicion all our lives shall be stuck full of eyes ;

For treason is but trusted like the fox,

Who, ne'er so tame, so cherish'd and lock'd up, 10

Will have a wild trick of his ancestors.

Look how we can, or sad or merrily,

Interpretation will misquote our looks,

And we shall feed like oxen at a stall,

The better cherish'd, still the nearer death. 15

My nephew's trespass may be well forgot ;

It hath the excuse of youth and heat of blood,

And an adopted name of privilege,

A hare-brain'd Hotspur, govern'd by a spleen : 5-**vy*-e< .

All his offences live upon my head 20

And on his father's ; we did train him on,

And, his corruption being ta'en from us,

We, as the spring of all, shall pay for all.

Therefore, good cousin, let not Harry know,

In any case, the offer of the king. 25

Vernon. Deliver what you will ; I'll say 'tis so. Here comes your cousin.

Enter Hotspur [and Douglas]

Hotspur. My uncle is return'd : Deliver up my Lord of Westmoreland. Uncle, what news ? 30

8. Suspicion Rowe | Supposition QiFf. 11. wild trick: "dash of the wildness." — Herford.

138 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v

Worcester. The king will bid you battle presently.

Douglas. Defy him by the Lord of Westmoreland.

Hotspur. Lord Douglas, go you and tell him so.

Douglas. Marry, and shall, and very willingly.

Exit

Worcester. There is no seeming mercy in the king.

Hotspur. Did you beg any ? God forbid ! 36

Worcester. I told him gently of our grievances, Of his oath-breaking ; which he mended thus, By now forswearing that he is forsworn : He calls us rebels, traitors ; and will scourge 40

W7ith haughty arms this hateful name in us.

Re-enter Douglas

Douglas. Arm, gentlemen ; to arms! for I have thrown A brave defiance in King Henry's teeth, And Westmoreland, that was engag'd, did bear it ; Which cannot choose but bring him quickly on. 45

Worcester. The Prince of Wales stepp'd forth before the king, And, nephew, challeng'd you to single fight.

Hotspur. O, would the quarrel lay upon our heads, And that no man might draw short breath to-day But I and Harry Monmouth ! Tell me, tell me, 50

How show'd his tasking? seem'd it in contempt?

42. Scene IV Pope. 51. tasking Ot | talking Ff.

44. engag'd : delivered up as hostage. So Hotspur retained West- moreland for the safe return of Worcester.

50. Monmouth. Prince Henry was so surnamed from the town of Monmouth in Wales, where he was born.

51. How . . . tasking: how did his challenge to fight sound?

scene ii HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 139

Vernon. No, by my soul ; I never in my life Did hear a challenge urg'd more modestly, ^h£^ Unless a brother should a brother dare f<U*^/s4ZZt&U

To gentle exercise and proof of arms. Si /O

He gave you all the duties of a man ; trvvtcAtt+Lfa^

Trimm'd up your praises with a princely tongue, Spoke your deservings like a chronicle, Making you ever better than his praise By still dispraising praise valued with you ; 60

And, which became himjike a prince indeed, He made a blushing5otal4o/fvhimself ; And chid his truant youth with such a grace As if he mast'red there a double spirit Of teaching and of learning instantly. 65

There did he pause : but let me tell the world, If he outlive the envy of this day, England did never owe so sweet a hope, So much misconstrued in his wantonness.

Hotspur. Cousin, I think thou art enamoured 70

On his follies : never did I hear Of any prince so wild a libertine. But be he as he will, yet once ere night I will embrace him with a soldier's arm, That he shall shrink under my courtesy. 75

72. a libertine Capell | a libertie Qx | at liberty Ff.

56. He ascribed to you all the due merits of a hero. 60. By always declaring that no words of praise sufficiently measured up to your merits.

62. cital: mention, statement. Not a contraction of 'recital.'

67. envy: enmity, malice. Cf. Richard II, II, i, 40.

68. owe: own, possess. Often so in Shakespeare.

72. so wild a libertine: using his freedom so wantonly.

140 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v

Arm, arm with speed : and, fellows, soldiers, friends, Better consider what you have to do Than I, that have not well the gift of tongue, Can lift your blood up with persuasion.

Enter a Messenger

Messenger. My lord, here are letters for you. 80

Hotspur. I cannot read them now. O gentlemen, the time of life is short ! To spend that shortness basely were too long, If life did ride upon a dial's point,

Still ending at the arrival of an hour. 85

An if we live, we live to tread on kings ; If die, brave death, when princes die with us ! Now, for our consciences, the arms are fair, \k>'^0,*> When the intent of bearing them is just. ) \l^^\

Enter another Messenger

Messenger. My lord, prepare ; the king comes on apace. go

Hotspur. I thank him, that he cuts me from my tale, For I profess not talking ; only this — Let each man do his best : and here draw I A sword, whose temper I intend to stain With the best blood that I can meet withal 95

In the adventure of this perilous day.

80. Scene V Pope. 93. draw I Qx | I draw Ff.

77-79. You can prepare yourselves for the fight much better than I, who am no orator, can kindle your ardor by my eloquence.

83-85. If life were vastly shorter than it is, to be measured by a single hour, it were still too long to be spent basely.

sciNEin HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 141

Now, Esperance ! Percy ! and set on.

Sound all the lofty instruments of war,

And by that music let us all embrace ;

For, heaven to earth, some of us never shall 100

A second time do such a courtesy.

The trumpets sound. They embrace, and exeunt

Scene III. [Plain between the camps]

The King enters with his power. Alarum to the battle. Then enter Douglas and Sir Walter Blunt

Blunt. What is thy name, that in the battle thus Thou crossest me ? what honour dost thou seek Upon my head?

Douglas. Know then, my name is Douglas ;

And I do haunt thee in the battle thus Because some tell me that thou art a king. 5

Blunt. They tell thee true.

Douglas. The Lord of Stafford dear to-day hath bought Thy likeness, for instead of thee, King Harry, This sword hath ended him : so shall it thee, Unless thou yield thee as my prisoner. 10

Blunt. I was not born a yielder, thou proud Scot ; And thou shalt find a king that will revenge Lord Stafford's death. They fight. Douglas kills Blunt

Scene III Capell | Scene VI Pope. 1. the Hanmer | Qx Ff omit.

97. Esperance. Hotspur makes this motto of the Percy family his battle-cry. So in Holinshed: "Then suddenlie blew the trum- pets, the kings part crieng S. George upon them, the adversaries cried Esperance, Persie, and so the two armies furiouslie joined."

100. heaven to earth. A wager of heaven against earth.

142 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE a:t v

Enter Hotspur

Hotspur. O Douglas, hadst thou fought at Holmedon thus, I never had triumph'd upon a Scot. 15

Douglas. All's done, all's won; here breathless lies the king.

Hotspur. Where ?

Douglas. Here.

Hotspur. This, Douglas ? no : I know this face full well : A gallant knight he was, his name was Blunt ; 20

Semblably furnish'd like the king himself.

Douglas. A fool go with thy soul, whither it goes ! A borrow 'd title hast thou bought too dear : Why didst thou tell me that thou wert a king? 24

Hotspur. The king hath many marching in his coats.

Douglas. Now, by my sword, I will kill all his coats ; I'll murder all his wardrobe, piece by piece, Until I meet the king.

Hotspur. Up, and away!

Our soldiers stand full fairly for the day. y Exeunt 29

Alarum. Enter Falstaff, solus

Falstaff. Though I could scape shot-free at London, I fear the shot here ; here 's no scoring but upon the pate.

30. Scene VII Pope.

21. Semblably . . . like: resembling in his equipment.

22. A fool go . . . goes: "go thy ways, fool that thou art." — Schmidt. Capell's emendation. The Quartos read, "Ah foole, go . . ."; the Folios, "Ah foole: go . . ."

30. shot-free: scot-free, without charge.

31. scoring. Falstaff has tavern thoughts and customs running

scene m HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 143

Soft! who are you? Sir Walter Blunt: there's honour for you ! here 's no vanity ! I am as hot as molten lead, and as heavy too : God keep lead out of me ! I need no more weight than mine own bowels. I have led my ragamuffins where they are pepper'd : there's not three of my hundred and fifty left alive ; and they are for the town's end, to beg during life. But who comes here?

Enter the Prince

Prince of Wales. What, stand'st thou idle here? lend me thy sword : Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff 40

Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies, Whose deaths are yet unreveng'd : I prithee, lend me thy sword.

Falstaff. O Hal, I prithee, give me leave to breathe awhile. Turk Gregory never did such deeds in arms as I have done this day. I have paid Percy, I have made him sure. 46

Prince of Wales. He is, indeed ; and living to kill thee. I prithee, lend me thy sword.

Falstaff. Nay, before God, Hal, if Percy be alive, thou get'st not my sword ; but take my pistol, if thou wilt. 51

in his mind; the mode of an innkeeper's accounts being to 'score' the items either by chalk-marks made upon the wall or by notches cut in a stick.

33. no vanity. Used ironically, to indicate the excess of a thing ; a frequent usage in colloquial speech.

37-38. for the town's end: on the way to live at the gates of London (a common station for beggars).

44. Turk Gregory. The reference is to the famous Hildebrand, who took the papal name of Gregory VII.

144 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v

Prince of Wales. Give it me : what, is it in the case?

Falstaff. Ay, Hal; 'tis hot, 'tis hot; there's that will sack a city.

The Prince draws it out, and finds it to be a

bottle of sack

Prince of Wales. What, is it a time to jest and dally now? He throws the bottle at him. Exit 56

Falstaff. Well, if Percy be alive, I'll pierce him. If he do come in my way, so : if he do not, if I come in his willingly, let him make a carbonado of me. I like not such grinning honour as Sir Walter hath : give me life : which if I can save, so ; if not. honour comes unlook'd for, and there's an end. Exit 62

Scene IV. [Another part of the field]

Alarum. Excursions. Enter the King, the Prince, Lord John of Lancaster, and Earl of Westmoreland

King Henry. I prithee, Harry, withdraw thyself ; thou bleed'st too much. Lord John of Lancaster, go you with him.

Lancaster. Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too.

Prince of Wales. I beseech your majesty, make up, Lest your retirement do amaze your friends. 6

Scene IV Capell | Scena Tertia Ff | Scene VIII Pope.

57. 'Pierce' and the first syllable of 'Percy' were sounded alike.

59. carbonado: piece of meat slashed into strips for roasting or broiling. Cf. Coriolanus, IV, v, 199: "he scotch'd him and notch'd him like a carbonado."

5. make up : advance to your post as commander-in-chief.

6. amaze : bewilder, cast into a maze. The original sense.

scene iv HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 145

King Henry. I will do so. My Lord of Westmoreland, lead him to his tent. Westmoreland. Come, my lord, I'll lead you to your

tent. Prince of Wales. Lead me, my lord ? I do not need your help : 10

And God forbid a shallow scratch should drive The Prince of Wales from such a field as this, Where stain'd nobility lies trodden on, And rebels' arms triumph in massacres ! Lancaster. We breathe too long : come, cousin West- moreland, 15 Our duty this way lies ; for God's sake, come.

Exeunt Prince John and Westmoreland Prince of Wales. By God, thou hast deceiv'd me, Lancaster ; I did not think thee lord of such a spirit : Before, I lov'd thee as a brother, John ; But now, I do respect thee as my soul. 20

King Henry. I saw him hold Lord Percy at the point With lustier maintenance than I did look for Of such an ungrown warrior.

Prince of Wales. O, this boy

Lends mettle to us all ! Exit

14. The battle of Shrewsbury took place in July, 1403, when Prince Henry was but sixteen years old. It appears, however, that, boy as he was, he did the work of a man. Holinshed relates that early in the battle he was hurt in the face with an arrow, insomuch that several tried to withdraw him from the field ; but that he, fearing the effect this might have on his men, insisted on staying with them to the last, and never ceased to fight where the battle was hottest.

146 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE actv

Enter Douglas

Douglas. Another king! they grow like Hydra's heads : 25

I am the Douglas, fatal to all those That wear those colours on them : what art thou, That counterfeit'st the person of a king?

King Henry. The king himself ; who, Douglas, grieves at heart So many of his shadows thou hast met 30

And not the very king. I have two boys Seek Percy and thyself about the field : But, seeing thou fall'st on me so luckily, I will assay thee : so, defend thyself.

Douglas. I fear thou art another counterfeit ; 35 And yet, in faith, thou bear'st thee like a king : But mine I am sure thou art, whoe'er thou be, And thus I win thee.

They fight ; the King being in danger, re-enter

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales. Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like Never to hold it up again ! the spirits 40

25-39. " This battell lasted three long houres, with indifferent for- tune on both parts, till at length the king, crieng saint George, victorie, brake the arraie of his enemies, and adventured so farre, that (as some write) the earle Dowglas strake him downe, and at that instant slue sir Walter Blunt and three others, apparalled in the kings sute and clothing, saieng, I marvell to see so many kings thus suddenlie arise, one in the necke of an other. The king in- deed was raised, and did that daie manie a noble feat of amies; for, as it is written, he slue that daie with his owne hands, six and thirtie persons of his enemies." — Holinshed.

scene iv HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 147

Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt, are in my arms :

It is the Prince of Wales that threatens thee ; > (lIuiA^^u/u.

Who never promiseth but he means to pay. \/

They fight : Douglas flies Cheerly, my lord : how fares your grace ? Sir Nicholas Gawsey hath for succour sent, 45

And so hath Clifton : I'll to Clifton straight.

King Henry. Stay, and breathe awhile : , njJ^^ Thou hast redeem'd thy lost opinion, i^^] ^

And show'd thou mak'st some tender of my life, JKa^" In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me. 50

Prince of Wales. O God ! they did me too much injury That ever said I heark'ned for your death. If it were so, I might have let alone The insulting hand of Douglas over you, Which would have been as speedy in your end 55

As all the poisonous potions in the world And saved the treacherous labour of your son.

King Henry. Make up t® Cliftsn : I'll ts Sir Nicho- las Gawaey. Exit

Enter Hotspur

Hotspur. If I mistake n«t, th®u art Harry M«nm«uth. Prince of Wales. Thou speak'st as if I would deny my name. 60

Hotspur. My name is Harry Percy. Prince of Wales Why, then I see

A very valiant rebel of the name.

59. Scene ix Pope. 48. opinion: reputation. As in IV, i, 77, and elsewhere.

148 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v

I am the Prince of Wales ; and think not, Percy,

To share with me in glory any more :

Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere ; 65

Nor can one England brook a double reign,

Of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales.

Hotspur. Nor shall it, Harry ; for the hour is come To end the one of us ; and would to God Thy name in arms were now as great as mine ! 70

Prince of Wales. I'll make it greater ere I part from thee ; And all the budding honours on thy crest I'll crop, to make a garland for my head.

Hotspur. I can no longer brook thy vanities.

They fight Enter Falstaff

Falstaff. W^ell said, Flal ! to it, Hal ! Nay, you shall find no boy's play here, I can tell you. 76

Re-enter Douglas ; he fights with Falstaff, who jails down as if he were dead [and exit Douglas. Hot- spur is wounded, and falls]

Hotspur. O, Harry, thou hast robb'd me of my youth! I better brook the loss of brittle life ^8>^ \\a<»**^ Than those proud titles thou hast won of me ; They wound my thoughts worse than thy sword my flesh :

68. Nor Ff I Now O^ 69. God Ql \ heaven Ff.

65. sphere: orbit. The figure is from the Ptolemaic astronomy. 75. Well said: well done. Cf. Romeo and Juliet, I, v, SS. 77. youth: reputation for youthful courage.

scene iv HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 149

But thought's the slave of life, and life time's fool; 81 And time, that takes survey of all the world, Must have a stop. O, I could prophesy, But that the earthy and cold hand of death Lies on my tongue : no, Percy, thou art dust, 85

And food for — Dies

Prince of Wales. For worms, brave Percy : fare thee well, great heart ! Ill-weav'd ambition, how much art thou shrunk ! When that this body did contain a spirit, A kingdom for it was too small a bound ; 90

But now two paces of the vilest earth Is room enough : this earth that bears thee dead Bears not alive so stout a gentleman. If thou wert sensible of courtesy,

I should not make so dear a show of zeal : 95

But let my favours hide thy mangled face; And, even in thy behalf, I'll thank myself For doing these fair rites of tenderness. Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven ! Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave, 100

But not rememb'red in thy epitaph !

[He spieth Falstaff on the ground What, old acquaintance ! could not all this flesh Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell!

95. dear Ql | great Ff. 100. ignominy Q1F3F4 | ignomy FjF2.

81-83. But thought is in subjection to this mortal life, and life itself is the sport of time. Cf. Sonnets, cxvi, 9. The First Quarto reads "thoughts the slaves . . ."

96. favours: the silken scarf sometimes worn over armor. So called, says Cowden Clarke, because such adornments were often the gift of some favorite lady to her favored knight.

150 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v

f I could have better spar'd a better man) i+i-yirrJH^ O, I should have a heavy miss of thee. 105

If I were much in love in vanity ! Death hath not struck so fat a deer to-day, Though many dearer, in this bloody fray. EmbowelFd will I see thee by and by : Till then in blood by noble Percy lie. Exit no

Falstaff. (Rising up) Embowell'd! if thou embowel me to-day, I'll give you leave to powder me and eat me too to-morrow. 'Sblood, 'twas time to counterfeit, or that hot termagant Scot had paid me scot and lot too. Coun- terfeit ? I lie, I am no counterfeit : to die, is to be a coun- terfeit ; for he is but the counterfeit of a man who hath not the life of a man : but to counterfeit dying, when a man thereby liveth, is to be no .counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life indeedTrhe Detterpart of valour is discretion ; in the which better part I have saved my life. 'Zounds, I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead : how, if he should counterfeit too and rise? by my faith, I am afraid he would prove the better counterfeit. Therefore I'll make him sure; yea, and I'll swear I kjll'd hirn^ Why may not he rise as well as I ? Nothing^confutesme but eyes, and nobody sees me. Therefore, sirrah [stabbing him], with a new wound in your thigh, come you along with me. 128

Takes up Hotspur on his back

in. Scene X Pope. 121. 'Zounds Qx | Ff omit.

113. 'Sblood Ql I Ff omit. 123. by . . . faith Qt | Ff omit. 115. I lie Qi I Ff omit. 127. with Qi | F^* omit.

iog. Embowell'd. As a preparation for embalming. 112. powder: sprinkle with a powdered condiment, salt.

114. scot and lot: tax levied on everyone.

scene iv HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 151

Re-enter the Prince of Wales and Lord John of

Lancaster

Prince of Wales. Come, brother John ; full bravely hast thou flesh'd Thy maiden sword.

Lancaster. But, soft ! whom have we here? 130

Did you not tell me this fat man was dead ?

Prince of Wales. I did ; I saw him dead, Breathless and bleeding on the ground. Art thou alive? Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight ? I prithee, speak; we will not trust our eyes 135

Without our ears : thou art not what thou seem'st.

Falstaff. No, that 's certain ; I am not a double man : but if I be not Jack Falstaff, then am I a Jack. There is Percy [throwing the body down] : if your father will do me any honour, so ; if not, let him kill the next Percy himself. I look to be either earl or duke, I can assure you. 142

Prince of Wales. Why, Percy I kill'd myself and saw thee dead.

Falstaff. Didst thou? Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying ! I grant you I was down and out of breath ; and so was he : but we rose both at an instant and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock. If I may be believ'd, so ; if not, let them that should reward valour bear the sin upon their own heads. I'll take it upon my death, I gave him this wound in the thigh : if the man

129. Scene XI Pope. 130. whom Q: | who Ff.

129. flesh'd. As used in Henry V, II, iv, 50, and elsewhere, 'flesh'd' involves a figure taken from the old habit of rewarding hounds or hawks with a portion of the first game they killed.

152 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v

were alive and would deny it, 'zounds, I would make him

eat a piece of my sword. 152

Lancaster. This is the strangest tale that ever I

heard. Prince of Wales. This is the strangest fellow, brother John. Come, bring your luggage nobly on your back: 155

For my part, if a lie may do thee grace, I'll gild it with the happiest terms I have.

A retreat is sounded The trumpet sounds retreat ; the day is ours. Come, brother, let us to the highest of the field, To see what friends are living, who are dead. 160

Exeunt [Prince of Wales and Lancaster] Falstaff. I'll follow, as they say, for reward. He that rewards me, God reward him! If I do grow great, I'll grow less ; for I'll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly as a nobleman should do. Exit

Scene V. [Another part of the field]

The trumpets sound. Enter the King, Prince of Wales,

Lord John of Lancaster, Earl of Westmoreland,

with Worcester and Vernon prisoners

King Henry. Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke. Ill-spirited Worcester ! did not we send grace, Pardon and terms of love to all of you? And wouldst thou turn our offers contrary ? Misuse the tenour of thy kinsman's trust? 5

162. great Oq | great again Ff. 2. not we Qx j we not Ff.

scene v HENRY THE FOURTH, PART I 153

Three knights upon our party slain to-day,

A noble earl and many a creature else

Had been alive this hour,

If like a Christian thou hadst truly borne

Betwixt our armies true intelligence. 10

Worcester. What I have done my safety urg'd me to; And I embrace this fortune patiently, Since not to be avoided it falls on me.

King Henry. Bear Worcester to the death and Ver- non too : Other offenders we will pause upon. 15

Exeunt Worcester and Vernon, [guarded] How goes the field ?

Prince of Wales. The noble Scot, Lord Douglas, when he saw The fortune of the day quite turn'd from him, The noble Percy slain, and all his men Upon the foot of fear, fled with the rest ; 20

And falling from a hill, he was so bruis'd That the pursuers took him. At my tent The Douglas is ; and I beseech your grace I may dispose of him.

King Henry. With all my heart.

Prince of Wales. Then, brother John of Lancaster, to you 25

14. the death Qx | death Ff.

21-22. "To conclude, the kings enemies were vanquished and put to flight, in which flight the earle of Dowglas, for hast [haste], falling from the crag of an hie mounteine . . . was taken, and, for his valiantnesse, of the king frankelie and freelie delivered." — Holinshed.

154 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v

This honourable bounty shall belong:

Go to the Douglas, and deliver him

Up to his pleasure, ransomless and free :

His valour shown upon our crests to-day

Hath taught us how to cherish such high deeds 30

Even in the bosom of our adversaries.

Lancaster. I thank your grace for this high courtesy, Which I shall give away immediately.

King Henry. Then this remains, that we divide our power. You, son John, and my cousin Westmoreland 35

Towards York shall bend you with your dearest speed, To meet Northumberland and the prelate Scroop, Who, as we hear, are busily in arms : Myself and you, son Harry, will towards Wales, To fight with Glendower and the Earl of March. 40

Rebellion in this land shall lose his sway, Meeting the check of such another day : And since this business so fair is done, Let us not leave till all our own be won. Exeunt

32-33. Ff omit. 41. sway Qt | way Ff.

35-38. "The earle of Northumberland was now marching for- ward, with great power which he had got thither, either to aid his sonne and brother (as was thought) or at the least towards the king, to procure a peace: but the earle of Westmerland, and sir Robert Waterton, knight, had got an armie on foot, and meant to meet him." — Holinshed.

43. business. A trisyllable, as often in Elizabethan verse.

INDEX

This Index includes the most important words, phrases, etc. explained in the notes. The figures in heavy-faced type refer to the pages ; those in plain type, to the lines containing what is explained.

a fool go . . . goes :

142 22 abundance of charge :

39 55 accidents : 20 209 accordingly : 21 3 Act V, Scene 1 : 130 1 admiral : 101 23 advertisement: 100 172 All-hallown : 18 161 Amamon : 68 336 amaze : 144 6 an (if) : 36 1 ancient (flag) : 120 30 ancients (ensigns) :

119 22 and (if) : 15 98; 15 103;

38 26 and if : 27 125 angel (coin) : 118 6 anon : 36 4 ; 54 25-26 antic : 13 61 apple-john : 100 4 appointment: 19 178 approve : 111 9 arbitrament: 114 70 arras : 75 492 articulate : 133 72 as: 111 4 ask'd . . . banns : 119

16-17 aspects : 8 97 at half-sword : 61 I6.i attempts : 92 13 auditor : 39 54

aunt Percy: 87 196

baffle : 15 103

bagpipe : 14 77

balk'd: 6 69

ballads . . . you : 44 44

bands : 99 157

Barbary : 57 74

Bardolph : 18 164

basilisks : 49 52

bastard : 54 26

bated: 116 99

Battle of Shrewsbury : 14514; 146 25

bavin : 95 61

beat Cut's saddle: 36 5

beaver: 116 104

become . . . cart : 75 489

belie him : 26 113

bestride me : 135 122

better consider . . . per- suasion : 140 77-79

blood : 92 6

blown . . . quilt : 120 48-49

blue caps : 69 356

Boars'-Head Tavern : 53 l

Bolingbroke : 32 241

bolters : 104 68

bolting-hutch : 73 444

bombard : 73 445

bombast : 68 327

book : 89 223

boots : 41 79 ; 41 80

155

both : 29 173 bots : 37 16 bottom : 83 105 brach : 90 237 brawn : 58 109 break with : 85 144 breathe . . . watering:

54 15-16- brief : 127 1 bring in : 11 35 brown bastard : 56 72 buff jerkin : 12 45 buffets : 48 30-31 business : 154 43 busky : 130 2 by the Lord : 11 38 by the squier : 42 12 by-drinkings : 104 72 by'r lady : 54 44 caddis-garter : 56 70 candy deal of courtesy :

33 251 canker : 29 176 cankers . . . peace :

120 29 cank'red : 27 137 canstick : 84 131 cantle : 83 100 capital : 97 110 capitulate : 97 120 carbonado : 144 59 carded his state : 95 62 cates : 86 163 cess : 36 7 chamberlain : 39 44

156

THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

changelings : 8 89 changing hardiment :

25 101 Charing-cross : 37 22 Charles' wain : 36 2 chewet : 131 29 choler : 67 324 chuffs : 46 88 cital : 139 62 colour : 26 109 colt : 43 36 comes me cranking in :

83 98 comfit-makers : 90 250 community : 96 79 comparative : 14 82 ; 95

67 condition : 21 6 confound : 25 100 continent : 83 no Corinthian : 54 12 corpse : 5 43 countenance : 11 28 courtesy . . . Heaven :

94 50 cousin : 5 31 ; 35 292 cozeners : 33 255 cressets : 79 15 crisp : 26 106 crop-ear : 50 68 crowns . . . current :

51 92-93 cry your mercy : 121

52 crystal-button : 56 69 cuckoo's bird : 133 60 cuisses : 116 105 culverin : 49 52 cunning : 73 450 currents : 49 54 Cut : 36 5

Cymric verse : 85 150 daff'd : 115 96 dagger of lath : 60 136 Dame Partlet : 103 50 damnable iteration : 15

92

dank : 37 8 dear expedience : 5 33 dearest : 98 123 defy: 31 228; 111 6 devil . . . fiddlestick :

74 478 Diana's foresters: 10

23 disclaim'd : 29 183 discontents : 134 76 dispraising . . . valued :

139 60 distemperature : 80 34 division : 88 210 dog : 37 9 dole : 45 75 doubt : 19 1 83 doubtless : 93 20 Douglas : 7 72 dowlas : 104 67 drawn-fox: 106 113-114 drone . . . bagpipe : 14

77 drum : 110 206 duties of a man : 139 56 eagles . . . bathed : 116

99 Earl of Athol : 7 72 Earl of Fife : 7 71 Earl of March : 24 84 Eastcheap : 17 131 ecce signum : 61 167-

168 eight shillings an ell :

104 71 elf-skin : 64 245 emboss'd : 108 158 embowell'd : 150 109 enfeoff'd : 95 69 engag'd: 126 95; 138

44 Enter . . . letter: 47 1 entrance : 3 5 envy : 22 27 ; 139 67 esperance : 50 70 ; 141

97 estridges : 115 98

ethical dative : 58 102 Euphuism : 71 394 exceedingly . . . con- cealments : 86 166-

167 exception : 24 78 exhalations : 67 320 expedition : 123 19 eye of death : 27 143 fac'd ancient : 120 30 fact or . . . deeds : 99

147-148 Falstaff's logic : 75 488 fat room : 53 l -2 favours : 98 136 ; 149

96 fear : 114 74 fear'd : 112 24 fears : 25 87 feeling disputation : 88

205 fern-seed : 41 84 Finsbury : 91 254 fire : 67 316 fire . . . angel : 102 33 flesh'd : 151 129 flocks : 36 6 fobb'd : 13 60 foot land-rakers : 40 70 foot of the ladder: 11 36 for more . . . uttered :

9 106-107 for the nonce : 19 181-

182 for the town's end :

143 37-38 forgot . . . Doncaster :

132 58 franklin : 39 52 frets . . . velvet : 42 2 frontier : 22 19 frontiers : 49 51 full of rest : 123 27 furious close : 4 13 further : 91 254 Gadshill (place) : 15

108

INDEX

157

Gadshill (man) : 18 1G4 gage : 29 173 garters : 44 43 gelding : 83 no gib cat : 13 75 girdle break : 108 152 good cheap : 102 43 good cousin . . . while :

30 211 gorbellied : 46 87 grandjurors : 46 90 griefs: 124 48 gull : 133 60 gurnet : 118 12 hair : 114 61 half-moon : 54 26 halter : 67 325 happy . . . dole : 45 75 hare : 14 79 harlotry: 70 391; 88 199 harriers : 97 101 head : 34 284; 114 80 ;

128 25 head of safety : 127 103 heady : 49 54 heaven to earth : 141

100 hest : 50 61 hills : 62 207 his : 4 18

his death . . . twelve- score : 78 539-540 hitherto : 82 74 hold in : 40 74 hold way : 41 81 Holinshed : 48 35 ; 82

80 ; 93 32 ; 132 58 ;

14197; 146 25; 153

21 holp : 21 13 honey of Hybla : 12 40 hopes : 20 213 hot in question : 5 34 hot . . . purses : 67 323 Hotspur's age : 7 87 ;

97 103 how . . . tasking : 138 51

humorous : 89 232

I am pacified still : 109

173 I could divide . . . buf- fets : 48 30-31 I forgive thee : 109 170 I would . . . pot of ale :

32 233 in estimation : 34 272 in faith it is : 7 76-77 in the neck of : 126 92 indent with : 25 87 indentures tripartite :

82 80 induction : 79 2 intemperance : 99 156 Jack : 105 84 join'd-stool : 70 374 journey-bated : 123 26 jumps with : 13 69-70 Kate : 48 35 Kendall Green : 63 223 kept : 32 244 King Cambyses' vein :

70 381 Knight . . . Burning

Lamp : 102 25 know itself : 125 74 larger dare : 114 78 lay by : 11 35 leash : 53 7 leg : 70 382 let'st slip : 34 278 lewd : 92 13 life time's fool : 149 81 liking : 101 6 lime . . . sack : 59 122 Lincolnshire bagpipe :

14 77-78 line : 51 82 links : 102 40 lion . . . true prince :

65 71-72 liquor'd : 41 82 list : 113 51 long-staff . . . strikers :

40 71

loop : 114 71

lord marshal : 127 2

Lord Mortimer of Scot- land : 99 164

lugg'd bear : 13 75

mad . . . malt-worms : 40 71

made head against : 81 64

Maid Marian : 106 114

maidenhead : 113 59

mainly : 62 200

majority : 97 109

make up : 144 5

makes an angel : 118 6

malevolent . . . aspects : 8 97

malt-worms : 40 71

mammets : 51 91

Manningtree ox : 73 446

me : 58 102

mean for powers : 33 261-262

medicines . . . love him : 43 18

Michaelmas : 56 53

micher : 71 402

milliner : 22 36

minion : 7 83

mistreadings : 92 1 1

misus'd . . . press : 118 12

moe : 129 31

moiety : 83 96

moldwarp : 85 149

Monmouth : 138 50

Moor-ditch : 14 80

Mordake : 7 71

more or less : 125 68

moulten : 85 152

murderous suborna- tion : 29 163

mutual : 4 14

my lady the hostess : 66 285

neck of : 126 92

nether stocks : 59 115

i5»

THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

never : 91 254 Newgate fashion : 105

89 news : 6 58 next : 91 261 next way : 37 9 nimble-footed: 115 95 no vanity : 143 33 not so much . . . butter :

10 18 not-pated : 56 69 ob : 77 532 obedient orb : 131 17 offend : 20 218 offering : 114 69 old lad of the castle :

12 40 omission of relative :

31 224 oneyers : 40 73 opinion : 94 43 ; 114 73 ;

147 48 opposed : 133 67 ought : 107 134 our book : 91 266 our business valued :

100 177

our old limbs : 131 13 out of all cess : 36 7 owe : 139 68 painted cloth : 119 25 paraquito : 51 84 parmaceti : 23 58 passion : 70 380 Paul's : 77 519 pay . . . home : 34 288 peevish : 88 198 peppercorn . . . horse :

101 8

Percy (pronuncia- tion) : 144 57 personal : 126 88 Peto : 18 164 pick-purse : 39 45 pick-thanks : 93 25 pismires : 32 240 pistol : 68 345

pitch . . . defile : 71 407 pluck allegiance : 94

52-53 pocket up wrong : 108

162 points . . . hose : 63

215-216 politician : 32 241 Pomgarnet : 55 36-37 possess'd : 113 40 possession : 94 43 poulter : 72 430 pouncet-box : 23 38 powder : 150 112 precedent : 55 32 predicament : 29 168 Prince's character : 75

484-485 Prince's court dis- grace : 93 32 Prince's falsehood :

76 504-505 prisoners . . . Fife : 8

92-95 proclaim'd . . . the next

of blood : 28 145 prune (verb) : 8 98 prune (noun) : 106 113 puke-stocking : 56 69 puny : 54 29 purchase : 41 89 quality : 124 36 quiddities : 12 44 rabbit-sucker : 72 430 rated sinew : 128 17 Ray's Proverbs : 52

110

razes : 37 22 reasons : 64 240 receipt . . . fern-seed

. . . invisible : 41 84 reproof : 19 192 retirement: 113 56 retires : 49 50 reversion : 113 53 revolted tapsters : 119

28

ridge: 11 37 Rivo : 58 110 roasted Manningtree

ox . . . belly : 73 446 rood : 6 52 roundly : 10 20 royal man : 66 291 royal . . . shillings : 17

141-142 rub the elbow : 134 77 sack : 9 3

Sack and Sugar : 16 114 St. Nicholas' clerks :

39 58-59 sarcenet : 91 253 s'blood : 13 74 scape : 42 14 scoring : 142 31 scot and lot : 150 114 scutcheon : 136 141 sealed interchangea- bly : 82 81 self-will'd : 88 198 semblably . . . like :

142 21 set a match : 15 108 set off his head : 134

88 setter : 44 49 seven stars : 10 12 shot-free : 142 30-31 shorten herring : 59

127-128 Sir Michael : 127 1 sirrah : 19 181 skimble-skamble stuff :

85 154 sneak-cup : 105 84 so wild a libertine : 139

72 soldier : 24 64 soothers : 1117 Spanish-pouch : 56 70 sphere : 148 65 squires . . . beauty :

10 23-25 stain'd soil : 6 64

INDEX

159

standing-tuck : 64 248 starveling : 40 66 state : 69 373 stew'd prune : 106 113 still: 34 278 strangle : 20 205 strappado : 64 238 stubble-land : 22 35 stung . . . tench : 37

15-16 subornation : 29 163 such solemnity : 94 59 sue . . . peace : 125 62 sugar : 54 22 suggestion : 124 51 suits : 13 73 sullen : 20 214 Sunday-citizens: 91258 Sutton Co'fiT : 118 3 swelling heavens : 88

201 sword and buckler : 31

230 taffeta : 10 9 take a muster : 118 133 take ... inn : 104 29 take me with you : 73

453-454 tallow catch : 63 229

task: 111 9

task'd : 126 92

taste : 117 119

tench : 37 16

that wandering . . . fair : 10 13

therefore . . . now : 4 30

therein . . . hope : 113 49-50

thou hast forgotten . . . know : 9 4-6

thou shouldst . . . su- perfluous : 10 9-10

ticklebrain : 71 392-393

Titan : 59 118

tithe : 103 55

to: 96 98; 106 115

to rob : 42 10

toasts-and-butter : 119 20-21

too wilful-blame : 86

177 took it in snuff : 23 41 toss : 121 66 touch : 128 10 trenching : 4 7 tristful : 70 388 Trojans : 40 66 true man : 41 89

true men : 67 311 Turk Gregory : 143 44 turkeys : 38 23 turn tailor . . . teacher :

91 261-262 two o'clock : 38 30 under-skinker : 54 23 unyok'd : 19 198 vaulted : 116 107 velvet guards : 91 258 vile participation : 96 87 warm : 119 17 water-colours : 134 80 we stand opposed : 133

67 well, if Percy . . . pierce

him : 144 57 well said : 148 75 well-respected : 122 10 where : 113 53 wild trick: 137 11 with cap and knee :

125 68 Yedward : 17 134 younger sons . . .

younger brothers :

119 27-28 younker : 104 79 youth : 148 77

fc*rtto mus « m*Kt

PR 2810 .A2 H8 1922 SMC

Shakespeare, William,

King Henry the Fourth, part